This book examines the ideological affinity that can be establishedbetween the classical 'Bildungsroman' and colonialist ideology on thebasis of a literary analysis of 'Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre'-considered by most critics to be the origin of the genre-and 'GreatExpectations'-one of the paradigmatic examples of the development ofthe Bildungsroman in English literature. This ideological affinity isunderstood as an example of what the Palestinian critic Edward Saidhas called a 'structure of attitude and reference': the convergence of different cultural manifestations that, although formallyindependent, contribute to a common purpose. The monograph alsoundertakes a study of the main characteristics of the classical'Bildungsroman' from a formal and thematic point of view, and ananalysis of the relationship between genre theories and Eurocentricdiscourses.