AGA saga

From ArticleWorld

AGA saga is a generally pejorative term for a novel in and from England that revolves around comfortably middle class English people living in small communities the countryside or semi-urban areas. The term refers to a type of cooker, called an AGA, allegedly popular among such people and was first used in 1992 about the work of Joanna Trollope.

Calling a work an 'Aga saga' endorses the opinion that it is cosy, provincial, and that it has a happy ending and is therefore fundamentally 'easy' and unimportant. Trollope has pointed out that Aga feature only in two if her 11 books, but the name has stuck. 'Aga sagas' tend to be about social relationships, interactions, individual choices, and institutions, all of which come to a head in country towns. Contrary to what the name suggests there is darkness and emotional depth to many Aga sagas, and the much-touted happy endings turn out to be a dud, though there is always personal discovery and growth. Admittedly, they do not touch on major political issues, but Aga sagas contain sharp, insightful analyses of the relationships between women, men, and family.

The Aga cooker signifies comfortable bourgeois domesticity. It weighs about one ton, runs on coke and is said to be very energy efficient, and is often called the Rolls Royce of cookers.