This paper presents an attempt to “re-read” The Square by Choi In-hun and Portrait of the Days of Youth by Lee Mun-yeol from the perspective of bildungsromans. The plots and embodiments of subject of culture in both the novels are similar to those of German "Bildungsroman" and also exhibit enough Korean features. Culture builds characters as intellectuals and cultured individuals and thus becomes a criterion to show the cultural refinement of the upper class of the time. It also contains the policy and ruling ideology of the time. Subjects of culture ultimately seek after harmony with the world through an ego exploration process, but the results are sometimes unsuccessful. The processes and results can lead to the disillusive and romantic types of bildungsromans. While The Square by Choi In-hun is one of the representative works in the disillusive type of bildungsromans, Portrait of the Days of Youth by Lee Mun-yeol is one of the representative works in the romantic type of bildungsromans. In disillusive bildungsromans, the subjects of culture fail to narrow down the gap between the world and themselves and eventually face frustration. In romantic bildungsromans, the main characters secure their own worlds. In The Square, Lee Myeong-jun, who is capable of criticizing the contradictions of political and social reality, is one of the utmost intellectuals and cultured men of the time, but he has a feeling of disappointment due to the gap between his own ideal and the reality and chooses to take his own life. In Portrait of the Days of Youth, Lee Yeong-hun, on the other hand, strengthens his own artistic world through ego exploration and achieves harmony with the world. Here one cannot disregard the gender differences in culture building between male and female subjects of culture. While male subjects of culture build their culture through "books" both in disillusive and romantic bildungsromans, their female counterparts build their culture by the influence of male subjects rather than on their own. In The Square, the female subject is perceived as the object of abasement by the male subject rather than being embodied as a perfect cultured person. The bildungsroman by Lee Mun-yeol, however, shows different aspects from the bildungsroman by Choi In-hun, embodying female subjects of culture in two types. They either receive instructions for culture building from the male subject or become subjects of culture through their own abilities. The former become the objects of criticism to male subjects like in The Square, the latter are set as helpers that exert influences on the ego exploration process of male subjects. Those changes to female subjects are the results of accepting the changes to the consciousness of culture.