Photo by Nico Aguilera.
This week I found a Baltimore Sun article about the increased presence of novels focused on late life. The article introduced me to a new term,Vollendungsroman, which was coined in 1992 by literary critic Constance Rook as a companion to the term Bildungsroman.
Bildungsroman refers to stories where the protagonist is coming of age, growing, developing or "building" towards adulthood.
One of the most classic examples is Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
A Vollendungsroman, by contrast, is a novel of winding down or completion. It focuses on the challenges presented in late life, chiefly to "discover the tension between affirmation and regret." (Rook qtd. in footnote 49 of Rita Caviagoli's Women of a Certain Age, on p. 203)
Books I've Read that Meet the Criteria for Vollendungsroman novels:
Haruf, Kent. Benediction (2012).
Healey, Emma. Elizabeth Is Missing (2014).
Laurence, Margaret. The Stone Angel (1964).
McFarlane, Fiona. Night Guest (2013)
Mosley, Walter. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (2010).
Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead (2004).
Shin, Kyun-Sook. Please Look After Mom (2011).
Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886).
Books I have yet to read that I've seen on lists about Vollendungsroman novels:
Carillo, Herman G. Losing My Espanish (2004)
Fischer, Christoph. Time to Let Go (2014)
Ford, Richard. Let Me Be Frank with You (2014)
Jonasson, Jonas. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared
McCorkle, Jill. Life after Life (2013)
Miller, Sue. The Distinguished Guest (1999)
O'Nan, Stuart. Emily Alone (2011)
Pym, Barbara. Quartet in Autumn (1977)
Spark, Muriel. Momento Mori (1958)
Stegner, Wallace. The Spectator Bird (1990)
Strout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge. (2008)
Tyler, Anne. A Spool of Blue Thread. (2015)
Mainly an Academic Term--for now
I did a quick online search to learn more about how Vollendungsroman is being employed. It's mainly confined to academic conferences, entries in academic reference books and literary criticism at this point. But I plan on keeping an eye open for increased use in mainstream media. I do want to share the chapter titles for a Ph.D. thesis that I found. Heather Gardiner's 1997 thesis The Portrayal of Old Age (available as a PDF download) has these instructive chapter titles:
- Images of Confinement: Order and Control in the Literature of Old Age
- Looking Back in Old Age: Ordering and Retrospect in the Journey of Life
- The Wisdom of Old Age: Finding Meaning in the Life Experience
- Vitality and Maturity: Coming to Terms with Death
- Old and and Resurrection: Another Look at Reality
More to Emerge?
As the Baby Boomers age, I imagine there will be more and more occasion for its use as applied to novels, poetry and perhaps to plays and films as well.
For the past five years, I have been trying to read as many novels about late life as I can manage. As a former college English teacher, I see value in literary representations of real-life challenges. Reading literature gives us an opportunity to sit back and meditate more deeply and with a little more objectivity--or at least with some foreknowledge--than trying to tackle our own life's situation in the moment without warning or insight.
And now there's a specific genre for such books. Who knew?
If you have recommendations for novels (not memoirs) that depict a protagonist with late-life challenges/perspective, please share the author/title in the comment section. Thanks!
Related:
Novels about Men Facing Death
Books about Dementia
Movies about Mature Men Preserving
Films about Aging