The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often a thematic device used to portray particular historical events, changes of social circumstances, or the ebb and flow of fortunes from a multitude of perspectives.
The word saga comes from Old Norse, where it meant "what is said, utterance, oral account, notification" and "(structured) narrative, story (about somebody)",[1] and was originally borrowed into English from Old Norse by scholars in the eighteenth century to refer to the Old Norse prose narratives known as sagas.[2][3]
The typical family saga follows generations of a family through a period of history in a series of novels. A number of subgenres of the form exist such as the AGA saga.
Successful writers of popular family sagas include Susan Howatch, R. F. Delderfield and Philippa Carr.
Literature[edit]
- The sagas of Icelanders – the medieval Icelandic family sagas in which the word "saga" is derived
- Mahabharata, by Valmiki – the chronicle of the Chandravanshi Rajput clan founded by Puru, also considered the longest poem in human history
- Dream of the Red Chamber – one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it chronicles the rise and decline of the Jia family
- A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight, by Henry Williamson
- Ada or Ardor, by Vladimir Nabokov
- The Artamonov Business, by Maxim Gorky
- Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
- Beauty Is a Wound, by Eka Kurniawan
- Buddenbrooks, by Thomas Mann
- Captains and the Kings, by Taylor Caldwell
- Harmonia Caelestis, a historicist piece by Péter Esterházy
- The Cairo Trilogy, by Naguib Mahfouz
- The Cazalet Chronicles, by Elizabeth Jane Howard
- The Covenant, by James A. Michener
- The Crowthers of Bankdam, by Thomas Armstrong
- Dune, by Frank Herbert
- East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
- The Emberverse series, by S. M. Stirling
- Evergreen, by Belva Plain
- Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald
- Family Tree tetralogy, by Ann M. Martin
- Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin
- The Forsyte Saga, by John Galsworthy
- The Golovlyov Family, by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
- The Good Earth and its sequels, by Pearl S. Buck
- Holes, by Louis Sachar
- Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
- Homestuck, by Andrew Hussie
- The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
- The Immigrants, by Howard Fast
- The Jalna books, by Mazo de la Roche
- The Kent Family Chronicles and The Crown Family Saga, by John Jakes
- Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset
- Os Maias, by Eça de Queiroz
- Old-fashioned Story by Magda Szabó
- I Malavoglia, by Giovanni Verga
- The Mallens, by Catherine Cookson
- Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez
- The Oppermanns, by Lion Feuchtwanger
- The Palaeologian Dynasty. The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, by George Leonardos
- The Promise, by Damon Galgut
- Radetzkymarsch (Radetzky March), by Joseph Roth
- Roma, by Steven Saylor
- Roots, by Alex Haley
- The Silmarillion, by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Strangers and Brothers, by C. P. Snow
- The Thibaults, by Roger Martin du Gard
- Time and the Wind, by Erico Verissimo
- The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
- The Lymond Chronicles and The House of Niccolò, Renaissance-set novel series by Dorothy Dunnett
- Under the North Star, by Väinö Linna
- The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
- White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
- The Witcher, by Andrzej Sapkowski
Film and television[edit]
- American Pop
- Arrested Development
- The Best of Youth, in Italian La Meglio Gioventù
- Blackadder
- Dark
- Game of Thrones
- The Godfather
- Heimat
- House of the Dragon
- Household Saints
- How the West Was Won
- I, Claudius
- In a Land of Plenty
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
- Our Friends in the North
- Raajneeti
- Roots
- Roots: The Next Generations
- Sibiriada
- Star Wars
- Succession
- Sunshine
- Taken
- The Thorn Birds
- The Dirtwater Dynasty
- This Is Us
- Vacas
Video games[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Dictionary of Old Norse Prose/Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog (Copenhagen: [Arnamagnæan Commission/Arnamagnæanske kommission], 1983–), s.v. '1 saga sb. f.'.
- ^ "saw, n.2.", OED Online, 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2019).
- ^ "saga, n.1.", OED Online, 1st edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2019).
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