Helon Habila’s Measuring Time and Elnathan John’s Born On a Tuesday as Bildungsroman

Abstract

The Bildungsroman genre is traditionally a male-authored prose genre, yet for so long in Nigeria, the “female protagonist” has been in the limelight in a bid to correct female displacement prompted by the original Western Bildungsroman. Consequently, in order to eliminate gender imbalance in the Nigerian Bildungsroman variant, there is an intentional effort by contemporary Nigerian male writers to explore the male protagonists’ growth process in Nigeria against predominant issues of post-colonialism such as violence, riot, unrest, corruption, dictatorship and religious/tribal wars. This study examined how male writers have harmonised with or modified the Western Bildungsroman to create a unique depiction of the genre. The study analysed Bildungsroman tradition in Helon Habila’s Measuring Time (200) and Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday (2015), it reflects national anxieties and contemporary socio-political issues and its detrimental effect on the personal Bildungof the growing up male child. Using the Post-colonial and Psycho analytic theories as its premise, this study revealed the fundamental factors responsible for the trauma and disillusionment a character experiences during his “process of becoming” and the survival mechanisms he opts to facilitate growth and transformation. This study proved that Bildungsroman has been indigenised by Nigerian male writers to account for their unique experiences and retell significant historical periods and reflect socio-political, religious and economic realities in Nigeria.