From the Cradle to the Grave

Representations of the human life cycle in literature have varied with time, social conditions and value systems and may be seen as projections of, or deviations from, an 'ideal life'. The cult of childhood, the focus on initiation or conversely aging, life extension and immortality are indicative of what has been valued about life and how life-course models have been shaped according to these ideals. Focusing on how individual literary genres, such as the Bildungsroman, the gothic, science fic ...