TRAGIC AMERICA IN THE NOVELS OF JOYCE CAROL OATES
Keywords:
Joyce Carol Oates; American literature; tragic America; violence; cultural myth; trauma; social inequality; gender.Abstract
This article examines the tragic dimension of American life as represented in the novels of Joyce Carol Oates. Her fiction reveals how systemic violence, cultural myths, and historical trauma shape the individual and collective destinies of American society. Oates democratizes tragedy by focusing not on heroic figures but on ordinary men and women whose lives reflect the contradictions of the American Dream. Through her portrayals of gender oppression, social inequality, racial conflict, and cultural mythologies, Oates presents a vision of “tragic America” where hope and despair are inseparable. Her works highlight the cyclical nature of violence and trauma, suggesting that tragedy is not an exception but a persistent feature of the American experience.Downloads
References
Oates, J. C. (2000). Blonde. New York: HarperCollins.
Oates, J. C. (2003). Rape: A Love Story. New York: Grove Press.
Oates, J. C. (2004). The Falls. New York: HarperCollins.
Oates, J. C. (2017). A Book of American Martyrs. New York: Harper.
Gale, S. H. (1981). Critical Essays on Joyce Carol Oates. Boston: G. K. Hall.
Wagner-Martin, L. (1996). The Modern American Novel: Joyce Carol Oates. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Plath, J. (2007). Understanding Joyce Carol Oates. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All content published in the Journal of Applied Science and Social Science (JASSS) is protected by copyright. Authors retain the copyright to their work, and grant JASSS the right to publish the work under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). This license allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author(s) for the original creation.
