The term bildungsroman has long been one of the most problematic entries in the lexicon of literary studies. Although it is often used innocuously, to refer to almost any novel that focuses on the development of a young protagonist, matters look rather different in the more secluded world of academic German departments. Here, the Bildungsroman is the object of fierce debates that illustrate how even such arcane fields as classificatory genre studies tenuously float on ideological undercurrents.