The 30-month project will explore how more than 200 years of British and Irish literature has shaped attitudes towards age, and how the stories we read can influence inter-generational relations.
Professor Siân Adiseshiah (pictured above), of Loughborough University's Department of English, secured the Leverhulme Trust Project Grant for Mind the Generation Gap: Literature, Representation, Consumption, which begins on 1 March 2027.
Working with co-leads Professor Sarah Holloway of Loughborough's Geography and Environment, Dr Amy Culley (University of Lincoln) and Professor Jonathon Shears (Keele University), the research will bring literary studies and human geography together to explore the historical roots of generational divides and how people respond to representations of relationships between different age groups.
Combining historical literary analysis with workshops in schools, a theatre and reading groups, alongside interviews and questionnaires, the researchers will examine how people of different ages interpret literature and whether it can encourage more thoughtful, age-aware communities.
Prof Adiseshiah said: “We often hear about conflict between generations, but we know much less about how these ideas have developed historically or how literature shapes the way younger and older people understand one another.
“This project will help us explore those relationships and investigate how engaging with literature might challenge stereotypes and open up new ways of thinking about age and generation.”