Starting from the classic “Bildungsroman”, this paper aims to identify the various forms in which the process of growth is portrayed in twentieth-century literature and cinema (and beyond). This is a far from univocal focus on formative themes, which, in its most conscious expressions, stands in stark juxtaposition with the linear path of individual maturation portrayed in the nineteenth-century tradition. In this essay, which is divided into two parts, several examples of this process are provided, through pages of literary fiction as well as references to cinematic works.
