This study illustrates the generic development of the family novel in the
second half of the twentieth century. It is a microscopic approach to novels
featuring the American family and its (post-)postmodern variations. Dells
work examines how the family, its forms and its conflicts are functionalized
for an authors cultural critique. From post-war to post-millennium, family
novelists have sketched the American family in various precarious conditions,
and their texts are critical assessments of contemporary socioeconomic and
cultural conditions. Dells close reading of John Cheevers The...