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Essay on Joyce Carol Oates: "Where are you going where have you been?"
Joyce Carol Oates, American author, known for the descriptive violence in her portrayals of American life, was born in 1938 in Lockport, New York (Joyce Carol Oates, Encarta). Oates received her education from Syracuse University, the University of Wisconsin, and Rice University. She then taught at the University of Detroit from 1961 to 1967 and at the University of Windsor from 1967 to 1987. She was a writer-in-residence at Princeton University from 1978 to 1981 and became a professor of English there in 1987 (Joyce Carol Oates, Encarta).
Between 1971-95, Oates published twenty-five novels, eighteen short story compilations, three collections of novellas, five volumes of poetry, six editions of plays, eight books of essays, and countless more umcollected works (Bess Rhode). As the format for her writing varies, so does her subject matter. Her creations cover a wide range of genres, but Oates' main fascination is contemporary America with its "colliding social and economic forces, its philosophical contradictions, its wayward, often violent energies" (Bess Rhode). Oates' works, and somethimes even Oates herself, have been subject to responses ranging from extreme praise to harsh criticism from the literary community. She has won many significant literary awards and has even been nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature. However, Oates' work from time to time has been criticized for being too violent, too bizarre, degrading to women, and "the exact antithesis to the feminist movement" (Bess Rhode). Some detractors also argue that there is enough violence in life; literature does not need to celebrate it and people do not like to be reminded of what disturbs them. But according to Oats’ elimination of that violence will not occur if it is just ignored.
Oates quoted herself, that her subject matter is "today's culture" and that all she is trying to do is to bring the ills of culture "to a place where it can be examined" (Bess Rhode)..........
