Ritual, Family and Therapy in Anglophone Literatures

This book investigates the triadic constellations between ritual, family, and therapy in literature in English. Many rituals, so-called rites of passage in particular, are strongly associated with the changing status of individuals as members of a family unit. Traditional healing rituals were often designed to have a therapeutic effect, sometimes mentally, but also physically, whereas modern psychotherapies often include ritual elements in order to enhance the efficacy of their treatment. Families, on the other hand, can be the site of therapeutic activity by providing protection, stability, and emotional comfort; yet, difficult family constellations may also be the origin of emotional distress and the reason why a person needs counselling and therapeutic support in the first place. Modern therapies, such as family systems therapy, have expanded their range of interest and influence in order to look at the whole family unit, not just the symptomatic individual, as client. This study discusses nine literary texts—six novels, one literary memoir, and two plays—in which the three dimensions intersect and mutually influence each other. Lars Heiler is an associate professor of British and American Literature and Culture at the University of Kassel, Germany. He is the author of a monograph on Regression and Cultural Critique in the Contemporary British Novel (2004, in German) and is co-editor of Taboo and Transgression in British Literature From the Renaissance to the Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). He has published book chapters on literature and censorship, literature and therapy, literature and the Holocaust, literary representations of femininity, postmodern representations of the pastoral, US and Canadian adaptations of Shakespeare, and post-colonial re-writings. He has given public talks on British and US theatre and fiction, including Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, Truman Capote, and Noah Haidle. He has also co-written several stage plays, most recently a play on the complete dramatic works of William Shakespeare, entitled Shakespeare - Cut and in One Piece (2023).