Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-324) and index.

Family systems therapy and literary study: an introduction / John V. Knapp -- Lucy Honeychurch's rage for selfhood: family systems therapy, ethics, and E.M. Forster's A room with a view / Kenneth Womack -- Enigmatic Jane Eyre: a differentation story without family in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre / Rosemary D. Babcock -- "Even now China wraps double binds around my feet": family communication in the Woman Warrior and Dim Sum / Gary Storhoff -- Exploring the matrix of identity in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal dreams / Lee Ann De Reus -- Family dynamics and property acquisitions in Clarissa / Joan I. Schwarz -- Circular ties: a family systems reading of A.S. Byatt's The game / Steven Snyder -- Family systems therapy and narrative in Toni Morrison's The bluest eye / Jerome Bump -- Forging a family discourse in Marilene Felinto's The women of Tijucopapo, or, unraveling the intricacies of miscommunication / Sara E. Cooper -- Family games and imbroglio in Hamlet / John V. Knapp -- Crusading for the family: Kurt Vonnegut's ethics of familial community / Todd F. Davis -- Hollywood exiles: Nathanael West's The day of the locust and family systems therapy / James M. Decker -- Are happy families all alike?: the strange case of Dr. Petruchio and Ms. Katherine / Marco Malaspina -- Transgenerational subsystems in Flannery O'connor's short fiction / Denis Jones.