Bildungsroman

A bildungsroman (German for ‘formation novel’) is a ‘coming of age’ story which traces the psychological development of the protagonist from childhood or adolescence into maturity, often through “a troubled quest for identity” (Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms).

There's a sense in which almost every YA novel is a Bildungsroman.

Subgenres include the Kunstlerroman which traces the development of an artist.

Examples include:

• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (since Copperfield becomes a writer, this might also be described as a Kunstlerroman)
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Outsiders by S E Hinton
• The Red and the Black by Stendahl
• The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Goethe
• Sons and Lovers by D H Lawrence
• Demian by Hermann Hesse
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
• The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger
• Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
• Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin
• Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Harry Potter ... by J K Rowling
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• What Maisie Knew by Henry James
• Kim by Rudyard Kipling