Joyce Carol Oates Summary

Joyce Carol Oates (1938 -) (Also has written under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith) American novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, essayist, critic, and editor. Joyce Carol Oates: Introduction ... Read more

Joyce Carol Oates - (1938 -) (Also wrote under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, playwright, author of children's books, nonfiction writer, ... Read more

One of the United States's most prolific and versatile contemporary writers, Joyce Carol Oates (born 1938) focuses upon the spiritual, sexual, and intellectual decline of modern American society.Oates... Read more

Joyce Carol Oates was born in the small town of Lockport, New York, on 16 June 1938 and grew up in a rural setting nearby in Erie County. Together with her brother, Frederic, and sister, Lynn Ann, sh... Read more

In 1990 Joyce Carol Oates won both the Elmer Holmes Bobst Lifetime Achievement Award in Fiction and the Rea Award for the Short Story, a twenty-five-thousand-dollar prize that honors living American... Read more

In the following essay, Zapf delineates the three main aspects of the aesthetic composition of Oates's “Master Race.” Cecilia Heath, the protagonist and narrative voice of Joyc... Read more

In the following essay, Trachtenberg provides a thematic analysis of the seven stories in The Hungry Ghosts. “The difficulty with stories, even true ones,” one of Joyce Carol Oates&#x... Read more

In the following essay, Chauche asserts that “Our Wall,” “Ich bin ein Berliner,” and “Lamb of Abyssalia” “go through the stages of the imperceptible pa... Read more

In the following essay, Dörfel discusses aspects of Oates's short stories set in or alluding to Germany. Introduction Germany and the Germans do not play an important role in Joyce Ca... Read more

In the following essay, Dean examines several of Oates's stories written in the epistolary or journal form, asserting that these pieces provide insight into her interest in the relationship bet... Read more

In the following essay, Dessommes finds parallels between the character of Connie from “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and Mrs. May, the protagonist from Flannery O'Co... Read more

In the following essay, McPhillips surveys the central thematic concerns of Oates's early novellas. The most successful of Oates's early novellas is the first. Triumph of the Spider M... Read more

In the following essay, Rozga offers a feminist interpretation of Oates's reworkings of Anton Chekhov's “The Lady with the Dog” and James Joyce's “The Dead.&#... Read more

In the following essay, Zviniatskovsky contrasts Oates's “The Lady with the Dog” with the original version by Anton Chekhov. Love. Either this is the remnant of something which... Read more

In the following essay, Wesley examines Oates's transgressive heroine in the short story “Stalking” and the ways in which the figure defies restrictive gender ideology. Althoug... Read more

In the following essay, Kozikowski investigates Oates's use of the Cinderella motif in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates's story remains prom... Read more

Critical Essay by John Simon I have been an early fancier of Joyce Carol Oates's fiction, which struck me as that always admirable thing: writing possessed of feminine sensitivity that in no w... Read more

Critical Essay by Sanford Pinsker Miss Oates' third novel—Expensive People (1968)—was a radical departure from the social milieu and gritty realities of her first books. By that ... Read more

Critical Essay by Jeremy Treglown The solemn domestic absorption of many of Joyce Carol Oates's stories seems narcissistic,… though this prolific and highly acclaimed author often write... Read more

Critical Essay by Victoria Glendinning ["Son of the Morning"] is a hugely ambitious novel. Clearly well-researched, it could serve as a basis for the sociological study of the theory an... Read more

Critical Essay by Charlotte Goodman The Gothic world which Joyce Carol Oates has projected in her novels and short stories is one that is shaped by irrationality, extreme emotions, and violence. Oate... Read more

Critical Essay by Maureen Howard [In Son of the Morning] Nathanael Vickery is an evangelist who believes that he is visited by Christ, even chosen by God to be one with His Son in a miraculous second... Read more

Critical Essay by A. G. Mojtabai ["Unholy Loves"] opens with a welcoming party, a scene of jealous, strained, fairly poisoned attentiveness, the characteristic swarming of small academi... Read more

Critical Essay by Joanne V. Creighton [The Wheel of Love] has thematic unity: focusing exclusively on the emotional complexity of human relationships, the collection offers a rich—if distressi... Read more

Critical Essay by G. F. Waller The almost obligatory topic with which to introduce Oates is, in fact, the amount she has published. A survey of her work may suggest a compulsive writer and maybe even... Read more

Critical Essay by Robert Kiely That Joyce Carol Oates writes with an unmistakably American voice is a truth more or less universally acknowledged. Though the locations of the six stories in "A... Read more

In the essay below, Wesley explains how Oates's fiction challenges gender ideology by describing the characterization of the protagonist of "Stalking." Although Joyce Carol Oat... Read more

In the following review, Robinson surveys the themes and storytelling techniques of The Rise of Life on Earth, I Lock My Door Upon Myself, and Heat and Other Stories, focusing on representations of &#... Read more

Below, Manske details conventions of Gothicism and realism in Oates's fiction, emphasizing the breadth and violence of her representation of American life. "All art is autobiographica... Read more

In the following review, Carroll assesses What I Lived For, finding that "the structure of this straightforward mystery is transformed into art of another order entirely, an exemplary work of m... Read more

Below, Cassill calls Expensive People "a prophetic novel," alluding to several literary precedents. The question is no longer whether Miss Oates is a very good writer—she is, i... Read more

In the essay below, Chell examines Mysteries of Winterthurn for the diverse ways that Oates uses conventions of the ghost story to indicate feminist concerns. Joyce Carol Oates has matured into wri... Read more

In the following essay, Weinberger analyzes the doppelgänger motif in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?," highlighting its implications about violence and sexuality. W... Read more

Below, Rozga discusses the significance of Midwestern setting in Oates's short fiction, focusing on her representations of Madison, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan. Joyce Carol Oates has em... Read more