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

This volume explores the confluences between two types of literature in contemporary America: the novel and the epic. It analyses the tradition of the epic as it has evolved from antiquity, through Joyce to its American manifestations, and describes how this tradition has impacted upon contemporary American writing.

Catherine Morley is the Academic Fellow in the Cultures of Modernism at Oxford Brookes University. She has recently published a co-edited collection of essays, American Thought and Culture in the 21st Century, and is currently working on Modern American Fiction. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Comparative American Studies, English, and the Journal of American Studies.