Joyce Carol Oates


A Brief Biography
from Greg Johnson's
A Reader's Guide to the Recent Novels of Joyce
Carol Oates
Copyright © 1996 by Greg Johnson
(printed by permission)

Joyce Carol Oates has often expressed an intense
nostalgia for the time and place of her childhood,
and her working-class upbringing is lovingly
recalled in much of her fiction. Yet she has also
admitted that the rural, rough-and-tumble
surroundings of her early years involved "a daily
scramble for existence." Growing up in the
countryside outside of Lockport, New York, she
attended a one-room schoolhouse in the
elementary grades. As a small child, she told stories
instinctively by way of drawing and painting before
learning how to write. After receiving the gift of a
typewriter at age fourteen, she began consciously
training herself, "writing novel after novel"
throughout high school and college.
 Success came early: while attending Syracuse University on
scholarship, she won the coveted Mademoiselle fiction contest. After
graduating as valedictorian, she earned an M.A. in English at the
University of Wisconsin, where she met and married Raymond J. Smith
after a three-month courtship; in 1962, the couple settled in Detroit, a
city whose erupting social tensions suggested to Oates a microcosm of
the violent American reality. Her finest early novel, them, along with a
steady stream of other novels and short stories, grew out of her Detroit
experience. "Detroit, my 'great' subject," she has written, "made me the
person I am, consequently the writer I am—for better of worse."
Between 1968 and 1978, Oates taught at the University of Windsor in
Canada, just across the Detroit river. During this immensely productive
decade, she published new books at the rate of two or three per year,
all the while maintaining a full-time academic career. Though still in her
thirties, Oates had become one of the most respected and honored
writers in the United States. Asked repeatedly how she managed to
produce so much excellent work in a wide variety of genres, she gave
variations of the same basic answer, telling the New York Times in
1975 that "I have always lived a very conventional life of moderation,
absolutely regular hours, nothing exotic, no need, even, to organize my
time." When a reporter labeled her a "workaholic," she replied, "I am
not conscious of working especially hard, or of 'working' at all. Writing
and teaching have always been, for me, so richly rewarding that I don't
think of them as work in the usual sense of the word."
 In 1978, Oates moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where
she continues to teach in Princeton University's creative
writing program; she and her husband also operate a small
press and published a literary magazine, The Ontario
Review.* Shortly after arriving in Princeton, Oates began
writing Bellefleur , the first in a series of ambitious Gothic
novels that simultaneously reworked established literary
genres and reimagined large swaths of American history.
Published in the early 1980s, these novels marked a
departure from the psychological realism of her earlier
work. But Oates returned powerfully to the realistic mode
with ambitious family chronicles (You Must Remember
This, Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart),
novels of female experience (Solstice, Marya : A Life), and
even a series of pseudonymous suspense novels
(published under the name "Rosamond Smith") that again
represented a playful experiment with literary genre. As
novelist John Barth once remarked, "Joyce Carol Oates
writes all over the aesthetical map."
 The dramatic trajectory of Oates's career, especially her
amazing rise from an economically straitened childhood to
her current position as one of the world's most eminent
authors, suggests a feminist, literary version of the mythic
pursuit and achievement of the American dream. Yet for all
her success and fame, Oates's daily routine of teaching
and writing has changed very little, and her commitment to
literature as a transcendent human activity remains
steadfast. Not surprisingly, a quotation from that other
prolific American writer, Henry James, is affixed to the
bulletin board over her desk, and perhaps best expresses
her own ultimate view of her life and writing: "We work in
the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our
doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest
is the madness of art."
 *JCO's husband, Raymond J. Smith, died in 2008; the
Ontario Review ceased publication as well. —Celestial
Timepiece




















Novels
 Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
With Shuddering Fall (1964)
A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967)
Expensive People (1968)
them (1969)
Wonderland (1971)
Do with Me What You Will (1973)
The Assassins: A Book of Hours
(1975)
Childwold (1976)
Son of the Morning (1978)
Cybele (1979)
Unholy Loves (1979)
Bellefleur (1980)
Angel of Light (1981)
A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982)
Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984)
Solstice (1985)
Marya: A Life (1986)
You Must Remember This (1987)
American Appetites (1989)
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It
Is My Heart (1990)


















(1993) (the basis for the 1996 film
Foxfire)
What I Lived For (1994)
Zombie (1995)
We Were the Mulvaneys (1996)
Man Crazy (1997)
My Heart Laid Bare (1998)
Broke Heart Blues (1999)
Blonde (2000)
Middle Age: A Romance (2001)
I'll Take You There (2002)
The Tattooed Girl (2003)
The Falls (2004)
Missing Mom (2005)
Black Girl / White Girl (2006)
The Gravedigger's Daughter (2007)
My Sister, My Love (2008)
Little Bird of Heaven (2009)
A Fair Maiden (Forthcoming)
The Crosswicks Horror
(Forthcoming)
Short story collections



















By the North Gate (1963)
Upon the Sweeping Flood And Other
Stories (1966)
The Wheel of Love And Other Stories
(1970)
How I Contemplated The World From
The Detroit House Of Correction
Where Are You Going, Where Have You
Been?
Marriages and Infidelities (1972)
The Goddess and Other Women (1974)
The Hungry Ghosts: Seven Allusive
Comedies (1974)
The Poisoned Kiss And Other Stories
from the Portuguese (1975)
The Seduction & Other Stories (1975)
Crossing the Border: Fifteen Tales
(1976)
Night-Side (1977)
All the Good People I've Left Behind
(1979)
A Sentimental Education: Stories (1980)
Last Days: Stories (1984)
Wild Saturday (1984)
Raven's Wing: Stories (1986)
The Assignation: Stories (1989)
Oates In Exile (1990)

















Heat And Other Stories (1991)
Where Is Here? (1992)
Where Are You Going, Where Have You
Been?: Selected Early Stories (1993)
Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque (1994)
I, the Juror (1995)
Demon and other tales (1996)
Will You Always Love Me? And Other
Stories (1996)
The Collector of Hearts: New Tales of
the Grotesque (1998)
Faithless: Tales of Transgression (2001)
I Am No One You Know: Stories (2004)
The Female of the Species: Tales of
Mystery and Suspense (2006)
High Lonesome: New & Selected
Stories, 1966-2006 (2006)
The Museum of Dr. Moses: Tales of
Mystery and Suspense (2007)
The Temple (1996)
Wild Nights! (2008)
Life After High School
Dear Husband, (2009)
Novels as "Rosamond Smith"
or "Lauren Kelly"











Lives of the Twins (1987) (U.K. title: Kindred Passions)
Soul/Mate (1989)
Nemesis (1990)
Snake Eyes (1992)
You Can't Catch Me (1995)
Double Delight (1997)
Starr Bright Will Be With you Soon (1999)
The Barrens (2001)
Take Me, Take Me With You (2003)
The Stolen Heart (2005)
Blood Mask (2006)
Other Works































Novellas
The Triumph of the Spider Monkey (1976)
I Lock My Door Upon Myself (1990)
The Rise of Life on Earth (1991)
Black Water (1992)
First Love: A Gothic Tale (1996)
Beasts (2002)
Rape: A Love Story (2003)
The Corn Maiden : A Love Story (2005)
Drama
Miracle Play (1974)
Three Plays (1980)
In Darkest America (1991)
I Stand Before You Naked (1991)
Twelve Plays (1991) (including Black)
The Perfectionist and Other Plays (1995)
New Plays (1998)
Dr. Magic: Six One Act Plays (2004)
Essays and criticism
The Edge of Impossibility: Tragic Forms in Literature
(1972)
The Hostile Sun: The Poetry of D.H. Lawrence (1974)
New Heaven, New Earth: The Visionary Experience in
Literature (1974)
Contraries: Essays (1981)
The Profane Art: Essays & Reviews (1983)
On Boxing (1987)
(Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities (1988)
George Bellows: American Artist (1995)
"They Just Went Away" 1995
Where I've Been, And Where I'm Going: Essays, Reviews,
and Prose (1999)
The Faith of A Writer: Life, Craft, Art (2003)
Uncensored: Views & (Re)views (2005)




















Poetry
Women In Love and Other Poems (1968)
Anonymous Sins & Other Poems (1969)
Love and Its Derangements (1970)
Angel Fire (1973)
The Fabulous Beasts (1975)
Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives Are
Money (1978)
Invisible Woman: New and Selected Poems, 19701982 (1982)
The Time Traveler (1989)
Tenderness (1996)
The Coming Storm (Forthcoming)
Young adult fiction
Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (2002)
Small Avalanches and Other Stories (2003)
Freaky Green Eyes (2003)
Sexy (2005)
After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My
Wings, and Flew Away (2006)
Children's fiction
Come Meet Muffin! (1998)
Where Is Little Reynard? (2003)
Awards and Honors
 American Academy of Arts and Letters, Richard and
Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award
 Boston Book Review, Fisk Fiction Prize
 Bram Stoker Award
 Heidemann Award for One-Act Plays
 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award
 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
 Mademoiselle College Fiction Contest
 Prix Femina Étranger
 Oprah's Book Club
 35 New York Times Notable Books of the Year
 National Magazine Awards
Joyce Carol Oates was inspired to write "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
after reading an account in Life magazine of a charismatic but insecure young man who
had enticed and then killed several girls in Tucson, Arizona, during the early 1960s.
Transformed into fiction, this story was first published by the literary journal Epoch in
1966 and was included in Oates's 1970 short story collection The Wheel of Love. Critical
acclaim was so swift and certain that as early as 1972, critic Walter Sullivan noted that it
was "one of her most widely reprinted stories and justly so." Along with the story's
frequent appearance in textbooks and anthologies, Oates herself republished it in 1974 as
the title story for Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?: Stories of Young America.
This collection's subtitle points to Oates's ongoing interest in adolescence, especially the
psychological and social turmoil that arises during this difficult period. Her preoccupation
with these topics, along with her keen sense of the special pressures facing teenagers in
contemporary society, is evident in ''Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?''
This story is seen by many as one of Oates's best and in the words of scholar G. F. Waller,
it is "one of the masterpieces of the genre." Oates's realism often garners such praise;
critics and readers alike have commended the presentation of the story's central
character, Connie, as a typical teenager who may be disliked, pitied, or even identified
with. A similar believability is instilled in Arnold Friend's manipulative stream of
conversation and its psychological effects on a vulnerable teenager. Critics also praise the
story for its evocative language, its use of symbols, and an ambiguous conclusion which
allows for several interpretations of the story's meaning. In 1988, a film version of the
story was released entitled Smooth Talk.
Smooth Talk
Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film
Festival, 1986

Released: 1985
Running time: 92 minutes

Director: Joyce Chopra

Production Company: Goldcrest Films;
American Playhouse; Nepenthe Productions
Producer: Martin Rosen
Executive Producer: Lindsay Law
Associate Producer: Timothy Marx

Screenplay: Tom Cole
Director of Photography: James Glennon
Editor: Patrick Dodd
Music Director: James Taylor
Original Music: Bill Payne, Russ Kunkel,
George Massenburg
Casting: Mary Colquhoun
Production Design: David Wasco
Costume Design: Carol Oditz
A Source for the Story
 Moser, Don
"The Pied Piper of Tuscon: He Cruised in a Golden Car, Looking for the
Action"
Life
(March 4, 1966): 19-24, 80-90
 Oates has acknowledged that she often bases stories on newspaper
headlines: "It is the very skeletal nature of the newspaper, I think, that
attracts me to it, the need it inspires in me to give flesh to such neat
and thinly-told tales." The inspiration for "Where Are You Going” was
the tale of Charles Schmid, a twenty-three-year-old from Tucson who
cruised teenage hangouts, picking up girls for rides in his gold
convertible. Eventually, he murdered three of them, while other
teenagers served as accomplices. He was convicted of murder in
1966; his story was written up in Life, as well as other newsmagazines,
during the winter of 1965-66.
An Excerpt:
 At dusk in Tucson, as the stark, yellow-flared mountains begin to blur
against the sky, the golden car slowly cruises Speedway. Smoothly it rolls
down the long, divided avenue, past the supermarkets, the gas stations
and the motels; past the twist joints, the sprawling drive-in restaurants. The
car slows for an intersection, stops, then pulls away again. The exhaust
mutters against the pavement as the young man driving takes the machine
swiftly, expertly through the gears. A car pulls even with him; the teenage
girls in the front seat laugh, wave and call his name. The young man
glances toward the rearview mirror, turned always so that he can look at
his own reflection, and he appraises himself.
The face is his own creation: the hair dyed a raven black, the skin
darkened to a deep tan with pancake make-up, the lips whitened, the
whole effect heightened by a mole he has painted on one cheek. But the
deep-set blue eyes are all his own. Beautiful eyes, the girls say.
 Approaching the Hi-Ho, the teenagers' nightclub, he backs off on the
accelerator, then slowly cruises on past Johnie's Drive-in. There the cars
are beginning to orbit and accumulate in the parking lot--neat sharp cars
with deep-throated mufflers and Maltese-cross decals on the windows. But
it's early yet. Not much going on. The driver shifts up again through the
gears, and the golden car slides away along the glitter and gimcrack of
Speedway-. Smitty keeps looking for the action. From "The Pied Piper of
"Tucson," Life, March 4, 1966: 19-24, 80c-90


Criticisms
Greg Johnson interprets the story as a "feminist allegory." When the ironically
named Arnold Friend first arrives at Connie's house, driving his sleazy gold jalopy and
accompanied by a strange, ominously silent male sidekick, Connie deflects him with her
usual pert sarcasms and practiced indifference. Throughout the long scene that follows,
Connie's terror slowly builds. The fast-talking Arnold Friend insinuates himself into her
thinking, attempting to persuade her that he's her "lover," his smoothtalking
seductiveness finally giving way to threats of violence against Connie's family if she
doesn't surrender to his desires. Oates places Connie inside the kitchen and Arnold
Friend outside with only a locked screen door between them. While Friend could enter by
force at any time, Oates emphasizes the seduction, the sinister singsong of Friend's
voice: a demonic outsider, he has arrived to wrest Connie from the protective confines of
her family, her home, and her own innocence. Oates makes clear that Friend represents
Connie's initiation not into sex itself--she is already sexually experienced--but into sexual
bondage: "I promise it won't last long," he tells her, "and you will like me the way you get
to like people you're close to. You will. It's all over for you here." As feminist allegory;
then, the story describes the beginning of a young and sexually attractive girl's
enslavement within a conventional, male-dominated sexual relationship...
While in realistic terms, especially considering the story's source, Connie may, be
approaching her actual death, in allegorical terms she is dying spiritually, surrendering
her autonomous selfhood to male desire and domination. Her characterization as a
typical girl reaching sexual maturity suggests that her fate represents that suffered by
most young women-unwillingly and in secret terror--even in America in the 1960s. As a
feminist allegory, then, " Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a cautionary
tale, suggesting that young women are "going" exactly, where their mothers and
grandmothers have already "been": into sexual bondage at the hands of a male
"Friend."
Understanding Joyce Carol Oates, 1987: 101-02

Larry Rubin argues that Connie has fallen asleep in the sun and has a
dream about a composite figure that symbolizes her fear of the adult
world. He discusses the references to sleep that frame the Arnold Friend
episode and the nightmare quality of her inability to control the situation:
The fact that Connie recognizes the sensual music being broadcast on Arnold's
car radio as being the same as that emanating from her own in the house
provides another strong clue to his real nature--that of a dream-like projection
of her erotic fantasies. His music and hers, Oates tells us, blend perfectly and
indeed Arnold's voice is perceived by Connie as being the same as that of the
disc jockey on the radio. Thus the protagonist's inner state of consciousness is
being given physical form by her imagination.... Connie's initial response to her
first view of Arnold tire night before., in the shopping center, was one of intense
sexual excitement; now she discovers how dangerous that excitement can be
to her survival as a person. Instinctively, she recoils; but the conflict between
excitement and desire, on the one hand, and fear, on the other, leaves her will
paralyzed, and she cannot even dial the phone for help. Such physical
paralysis in the face of oncoming danger is a phenomenon familiar to all
dreamers, like being unable to run from the monster because your legs won't
respond to your will.
Finally, the rather un-devil-like tribute that Arnold pays Connie as she finally
succumbs to his threats against her family and goes out of the house to him"you're better than them [her family] because not a one of there would have
done this for you" is exactly what poor, unappreciated Connie wants to hear.
She is making a noble sacrifice, and in her dream she gives herself full credit
for it. Explicator 42 (1984): 57-59
 Joyce M. Wegs contends that "Arnold is clearly a
symbolic Satan. As is usual with Satan, he is in disguise;
the distortions in his appearance and behavior suggest not
only that his identity is faked but also hint at his real self...
When he introduces himself, his name too hints at his
identity. For "friend" is uncomfortably close to "fiend"; his
initials could well stand for Arch Fiend. The frightened
Connie sees Arnold as "only half real": he "had driven up
the driveway all right but had come from nowhere before
that and belonged nowhere." Especially supernatural is his
mysterious knowledge about her, her family, and her
friends. At one point, he even seems to be able to see all
the way to the barbecue which Connie's family is attending
and to get a clear vision of what all the guests are doing.
Journal of Narrative Technique 5 (1975):69-70.

But Mike Tierce and John Michael Crafton argue for an opposite
interpretation: they see Arnold as a savior or messiah figure and base
their case on identifying Arnold with Bob Dylan, the popular singer to whom
Oates dedicated the story.
In the mid-sixties Bob Dylan's followers perceived him to be a messiah.
According to his biographer [Anthony Scaduto], Dylan was a "rock-and-roll
king." It is no wonder then that Arnold speaks with "the voice of the man on the
radio," the disc jockey whose name, Bobby King, is a reference to "Bobby"
Dylan, the "king" of rock-and-roll. Dylan was more than a "friend" to his
listeners; he was "Christ revisited," "the prophet leading [his followers] into [a
new] Consciousness." In fact, "people were making him an idol; . . . thousands
of men and women, young and old, felt their lives entwined with his because
they saw him as a mystic, a messiah who would lead them to salvation."
That Oates consciously associates Arnold Friend with Bob Dylan is clearly
suggested by the similarities of their physical descriptions. Arnold's "shaggy,
shabby black hair that looked crazy as a wig," his "long and hawklike" nose, his
unshaven face, his "big and white" teeth, his lashes, "thick and black as if
painted with a black tarlike material," and his size ("only an inch or so taller
than Connie") are all characteristic of Bob Dylan....
Arnold is the personification of popular music, particularly Bob Dylan's music;
and as such, Connie's interaction with him is a musically induced fantasy, a
kind of "magic carpet ride" in a "convertible jalopy painted gold." Rising out of
Connie's radio, Arnold Friend/Bob Dylan is a magical, musical messiah; he
persuades Connie to abandon her father's house. As a manifestation of her
own desires, he frees her from the limitations of a fifteen-year-old girl, assisting
her maturation by stripping her of her childlike vision.
Studies in Short
Fiction 22 (1985):220, 223