The Family Novel in North America from Post-War to Post-Millennium - A Study in Genre

ISBN-13: 9783836447737 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 248 str.

Kerstin Dell

Opis

This study illustrates the generic development of the family novel in thesecond half of the twentieth century. It is a microscopic approach to novelsfeaturing the American family and its (post-)postmodern variations. Dellswork examines how the family, its forms and its conflicts are functionalizedfor an authors cultural critique. From post-war to post-millennium, familynovelists have sketched the American family in various precarious conditions,and their texts are critical assessments of contemporary socioeconomic andcultural conditions. Dells close reading of John Cheevers The WapshotChronicle, Don DeLillos White Noise and Jonathan Franzens The Correctionsshows that authors react to social and cultural change with new functionalizationsof the family in fiction. Unlike the general assumption of literarycriticism, family novels do not approach new cultural developments in aconventional or even traditionalist manner. The significant changes anddevelopments of the family novel in the past five decades demonstrate theneed for the thorough reassessment of the genre Dell offered in this book.