The essential daily tasks of everyday life – cooking, cleaning, caring – are so familiar and repetitive that they can often seem boring. This class provides an in-depth academic and research based introduction to the way literary genres such as the realist novel and life-writing represent the work which goes into keeping daily life functioning, and the way ordinary life can be rendered extraordinary, and meaningful in new ways, through literary writing. Alongside close readings of anglophone literary texts from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, we will read recent critical theory about the radical potential of homemaking, especially for marginalized groups, feminist approaches to the politics of housework, and theorisations of emotional labour. How to balance family life and career, who in a family or couple does the most housework, and the increasing flexibility of the boundaries between work life and home life are major issues in contemporary society. This class will facilitate students to reflect critically on what literature, studied from historical and theoretical perspectives, can contribute to the understanding of such debates. The course will draw on insights from a current research project at SDU, including possible guest lectures from researchers.