Disability, Family Coping, and Family Resilience in Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child

Özge Altunlu; Mukadder Erkan

doi:10.59045/nalans.2026.106

Authors

Özge Altunlu Department of English Language and Literature, Atatürk University Corresponding Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5494-4152
Mukadder Erkan Department of English Language and Literature, Atatürk University Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9110-4272

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59045/nalans.2026.106

Keywords:

Disability Studies, Family, Literature, Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child

Abstract

The phenomenon of disability, the disabled individual and, accordingly, disability studies have recently been of interest to many disciplines. In the context of disability studies, our scrutiny aims to address the family with a disabled child and the fictional disabled character Ben together with his environment. Disability studies enable the scrutiny of family members with disabled children, who are affected by the phenomenon of disability at least as much as disabled individuals, from many psychological, sociological, economic, individual and social aspects. One of the pillars of disability studies with an interdisciplinary structure is in the field of literature so literary works are used to understand and perceive disabled individuals. Along with the emergence and development of disability studies, the psychosocial scrutiny of families with disabled children and the analysis of Doris Lessing’s novel, The Fifth Child at this level are among the focal points of our study. In this respect, Lessing, who includes disabled characters in the novel we are dealing with in our study, focuses on the communication and interaction of disabled individuals with their environment, who are trying to hold on in society. This study consists of three parts except Introduction, Method, Findings and Conclusion. In the first part, the concepts of disability and family, in the second part, coping in the family with a disabled child and in the third part, the resilient individual in such a family are scrutinised.

Author Biographies

Özge Altunlu, Department of English Language and Literature, Atatürk University

Özge ALTUNLU holds her PhD from Atatürk University. Her research interests lie in disability studies, critical theory, and contemporary literature, with a specific emphasis on the representation of disability in fiction. In her MA thesis, Altunlu scrutinised intergenerational (colonial-postcolonial) trauma in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing. Her current doctoral research investigates literary narratives from the perspective of embodied experience and the socio-cultural constructions of disability. Altunlu has presented at international conferences and participated in research projects funded by higher education institutions. She also contributes to national and international academic journals as a foreign language editor. In addition to her academic activities, she has received training in various fields, including disability studies and family issues. She has also contributed to web coordination and international student mobility programmes at her institution.
Mukadder Erkan, Department of English Language and Literature, Atatürk University

Mukadder ERKAN is a Professor at Atatürk University, Faculty of Letters, the English Language and Literature Department. Erkan became an Associate Professor in 2006 and a professor in 2011. She is still working on the Department of English Language and Literature Department. Erkan’s research interests include English novels, narratology, postmodernism, post-structuralism, philosophy, translation, Irish literature, English literature, eco-criticism, transhumanism, posthumanism, disability studies, and ageing studies. In addition to her copyrighted works, Erkan has also published articles and translated books.

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