The Family in Literature

Module code: EN7401

The family has been a central theme in literature from the classical period onwards. This module focuses on the multiple ways in which families have been represented in literary texts across the centuries. Topics for discussion will include happy and dysfunctional families; orphans, adopted children, and families of choice; mothers, fathers, and sibling relationships; power dynamics within the family, and how they relate to broader social structures of power; generational trauma; gender within the family; family and place. After an introductory seminar, the module will be taught in three blocks, taking you through key texts from the period before 1800; the Victorian age; and the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.