Literature centered on "mentorship"
July 22, 2013 3:04 PM Subscribe
I have wanted to ask this for a while, and finally have a second example to broaden the scope of my search enough to be hopeful for hits. I am looking for literature that depicts a particular relationship between two main characters. Details to follow:
I have Mary Renault's The Last of the Wine, and Natsume Soseki's Kokoro in mind.
In the former, you have a young youth in ancient Athens, perhaps the age of 16, who enters into a homosexual-romantic relationship with an older man, perhaps the age of 24. As a pederastic relationship, the older partner has a sort of mentoring-influence on the younger. As the Greeks describe it, the nature of such a relationship was for the older partner to help cultivate a virtuous man out of the youth, who would participate in the civic life of his city and contribute towards its well-being.
In the latter, you have a university student, who enters into a platonic relationship with an older man, old enough to be his father. For most of the novel, their relationship is not explicitly one of mentorship, but this seems to be the effect that this relationship is having on the university student. The younger party is at times described as lonely, and the novel solely describes his constant seeking out and interactions with this older person that he calls Sensei/Teacher. This person in some ways is a replacement father figure. And in someone's introduction, this relationship is described as: "a young man's intellectually erotic attraction to an older man."
To be explicit, the qualities that I like about this sort of relationship are:
(1) That there is a definite and heavy connection between the two characters. They are constantly either around each other or seeking each other out.
(2) That there's some sort of hierarchy, whereby the one recognizes and gives deference to the other.
(3) That by being in such a relationship along the lines of (1) and (2), the younger one stands to gain some sort of benefit that relates to his own civic-virtuous-moral-intellectual-etc. development.
Are you aware of any novels that have this "trope"? I worry that despite my finding two instances of it, that perhaps it is still much too specific. Thanks!
I have Mary Renault's The Last of the Wine, and Natsume Soseki's Kokoro in mind.
In the former, you have a young youth in ancient Athens, perhaps the age of 16, who enters into a homosexual-romantic relationship with an older man, perhaps the age of 24. As a pederastic relationship, the older partner has a sort of mentoring-influence on the younger. As the Greeks describe it, the nature of such a relationship was for the older partner to help cultivate a virtuous man out of the youth, who would participate in the civic life of his city and contribute towards its well-being.
In the latter, you have a university student, who enters into a platonic relationship with an older man, old enough to be his father. For most of the novel, their relationship is not explicitly one of mentorship, but this seems to be the effect that this relationship is having on the university student. The younger party is at times described as lonely, and the novel solely describes his constant seeking out and interactions with this older person that he calls Sensei/Teacher. This person in some ways is a replacement father figure. And in someone's introduction, this relationship is described as: "a young man's intellectually erotic attraction to an older man."
To be explicit, the qualities that I like about this sort of relationship are:
(1) That there is a definite and heavy connection between the two characters. They are constantly either around each other or seeking each other out.
(2) That there's some sort of hierarchy, whereby the one recognizes and gives deference to the other.
(3) That by being in such a relationship along the lines of (1) and (2), the younger one stands to gain some sort of benefit that relates to his own civic-virtuous-moral-intellectual-etc. development.
Are you aware of any novels that have this "trope"? I worry that despite my finding two instances of it, that perhaps it is still much too specific. Thanks!
I always am a little hesitant to mention these, as they have flaws, but if you're CofE, or even any mainstream Christian religion, the theology is basically sound. And so is the psychology. And the storylines are generally pretty good.
The Starbridge Series (aka the Church of England series) by Susan Howatch. The mentor relationship exists in each of the books, IIRC, and in general the hierarchy is that of the Church of England. While some have a more explicit #3 than others, in general, because in many cases the mentor is a spiritual adviser to another member of the clergy, it's implicit.
posted by janey47 at 3:17 PM on July 22, 2013
The Starbridge Series (aka the Church of England series) by Susan Howatch. The mentor relationship exists in each of the books, IIRC, and in general the hierarchy is that of the Church of England. While some have a more explicit #3 than others, in general, because in many cases the mentor is a spiritual adviser to another member of the clergy, it's implicit.
posted by janey47 at 3:17 PM on July 22, 2013
The Young Protectors (NSFW) might pique your interest. It's manga, however.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 3:20 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by sevensnowflakes at 3:20 PM on July 22, 2013
What about Emma's relationship with Knightley in Austen's Emma? And perhaps also Dorothea's with Casaubon in Eliot's Middlemarch (failed mentoring situation)?
posted by sock of ages at 3:23 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by sock of ages at 3:23 PM on July 22, 2013
Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian.
posted by Unified Theory at 3:29 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by Unified Theory at 3:29 PM on July 22, 2013
Wart and Merlin in White's The Once and Future King?
posted by fingersandtoes at 3:34 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by fingersandtoes at 3:34 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
The Stars Dispose and The Stars Compel by Michaela Roessner. (it's a duology. It has a relationship of the first type you describe.)
posted by tomboko at 3:43 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by tomboko at 3:43 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
(1) That there is a definite and heavy connection between the two characters. They are constantly either around each other or seeking each other out.
(2) That there's some sort of hierarchy, whereby the one recognizes and gives deference to the other.
(3) That by being in such a relationship along the lines of (1) and (2), the younger one stands to gain some sort of benefit that relates to his own civic-virtuous-moral-intellectual-etc. development.
For me, the Freud-Jung Letters virtually wrap the needles around the pegs as measured under these three criteria, but they are not a novel even though they read like a masterpiece of the epistolary subtype.
posted by jamjam at 3:47 PM on July 22, 2013
(2) That there's some sort of hierarchy, whereby the one recognizes and gives deference to the other.
(3) That by being in such a relationship along the lines of (1) and (2), the younger one stands to gain some sort of benefit that relates to his own civic-virtuous-moral-intellectual-etc. development.
For me, the Freud-Jung Letters virtually wrap the needles around the pegs as measured under these three criteria, but they are not a novel even though they read like a masterpiece of the epistolary subtype.
posted by jamjam at 3:47 PM on July 22, 2013
This trope comes pretty close to what you are looking for:
Say Bob and Charlie are not family, but are close to one another. Really close. Bob is younger than Charlie, and Charlie is quite happy to take Bob under his wing. He guides Bob to his place, whether in the world or simply in one social circle. However, Bob and Charlie's affection for each other is a bit more than fatherly.
This dynamic applies to a gay couple (or simply an ambiguous one) in which one partner is much older and acts as a mentor to another. In this dynamic, Charlie is most often powerful and successful, and Bob is most often attractive in one way or another
There are fifty or so examples listed under "literature", from Plato to much more modern. Some novels, some not.
posted by yohko at 3:51 PM on July 22, 2013
Say Bob and Charlie are not family, but are close to one another. Really close. Bob is younger than Charlie, and Charlie is quite happy to take Bob under his wing. He guides Bob to his place, whether in the world or simply in one social circle. However, Bob and Charlie's affection for each other is a bit more than fatherly.
This dynamic applies to a gay couple (or simply an ambiguous one) in which one partner is much older and acts as a mentor to another. In this dynamic, Charlie is most often powerful and successful, and Bob is most often attractive in one way or another
There are fifty or so examples listed under "literature", from Plato to much more modern. Some novels, some not.
posted by yohko at 3:51 PM on July 22, 2013
The Skulduggery Pleasant series has this relationship between the title character and the main character, Stephanie. This a YA/urban fantasy series. In most of that genre's stories, the main character lives in our world at first and then discovers a secret magical world that touches ours. They almost always have two or more friends their own age. SP does have some other teenagers in it, but they are pretty minor characters compared to Skulduggery and his friends.
posted by soelo at 3:59 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by soelo at 3:59 PM on July 22, 2013
Bom-Crioulo may be along the lines of what you're looking for. It has been a while since I've read it, however.
posted by juliagulia at 4:02 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by juliagulia at 4:02 PM on July 22, 2013
In World of Wonders by Robertson Davies, the main character is abducted by a magician in a traveling carnival, so the relationship isn't consensual but he does learn to be one of the world's greatest magicians in the process. He also learns from other older men and women in his journey.
posted by perhapses at 4:04 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by perhapses at 4:04 PM on July 22, 2013
It always struck me that Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 described the ending of this kind of relationship, when the younger falls in love with someone his own age, and the older one lets him go, with love.
posted by alms at 4:10 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by alms at 4:10 PM on July 22, 2013
Not a novel but a play (and then an Academy award-winning movie) The King's Speech.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:32 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:32 PM on July 22, 2013
John Irving's The Cider House Rules has that sort of relationship between Dr. Wilber Larch and Homer Wells.
posted by 1367 at 10:51 PM on July 22, 2013
posted by 1367 at 10:51 PM on July 22, 2013
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posted by decathecting at 3:13 PM on July 22, 2013 [1 favorite]