The Quest for Epic in Contemporary American Fiction: John Updike, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo

In this new study of the three leading American novelists of their generation, Catherine Morley explores the roots of the epic fiction of John Updike, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo. She argues that each writer has been profoundly influenced not only by great American forebears such as Emerson and Melville, but by a European tradition that stretches back to Homer, Virgil and the classical epic, and also by the example of James Joyce, whose great work Ulysses recast the epic for the modernist age. Looking closely at such works as Updike's Rabbit novels, Roth's American Pastoral and The Human Stain, and DeLillo's Underworld, and drawing on recent theories of transatlantic cultural exchange, Morley shows how each writer has been inspired by both American and European forerunners to produce epic works that subtly deconstruct the founding myths of American national identity. Essential reading for anyone interested in Updike, Roth and DeLillo, this book casts new light on contemporary American fiction and willbe greatly admired by scholars and readers alike.