The sort of family we now regard as natural and eternal-two loving parents focused on nurturing a few children toward personal independence-is in fact thoroughly grounded in a particular sociohistorical situation. The nuclear family emerged in Europe in the mid- to late-eighteenth century, as the household economy, with its extended "family" of apprentices, farm hands, or servants and its combined work/family living space, gave way to the separation of work and home, production and (emotional as well as biological) reproduction. This tutorial will be concerned with how the family writes and "reads" or interprets its own stories. First, we will explore these issues in general, examining closely some of the characteristic plots and character configurations that form the bedrock of familial self-definition, focusing on the nineteenth century, including literature by Lessing, Mary Shelley, Kleist, Hawthorne, Hoffmann, Austen, Flaubert, Turgenev, Maupassant, Hauptmann, and Tolstoy. Then, we will turn to our own era as another transitional time in the development of the family, discussing narratives that enact experimentation with other forms of family relationship. Readings for the last part of the course will be chosen by students together with the instructor; in addition, students might write one paper in which they explore the ways in which they or other members of their families engage with reading their own family. All readings in English. Format: tutorial. Requirements: Students meet weekly with a tutorial partner and the instructor to discuss one student's paper and the other student's response. Each student writes five 5-page arguments and five 2-page critiques. Prerequisites: one 100-level Comparative Literature or English course, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10).(Cultural Studies)