ABSTRACT
Focussing on Junk, Doing It and Kill All Enemies, this chapter examines Burgess’ depiction of the nuclear family as a dysfunctional space, in which the child as a symbol of futurity is disrupted and displaced by troubled and absent parents. As reflections of the State, it argues that the families of these novels represent broader social fissures, figured as an unbroachable gap between parent and child, and manifested within abject cycles of generational trauma, addiction, and gendered violence. Yet Burgess also suggests that despite the disappointments of the conventional family unit, there are attempts to move beyond its limitations, with the protagonists of these narratives seeking new communities as substitute social structures and systems of care. While these familial substitutions are rarely ideal, they nonetheless provide connection, redemption, and hope, offering the possibility for change as well as subversive visions of social order, subjectivity, and growth.
