Reconciliation With Society-Foxfire: Confessions Of A Girl Gang In Heterotopias Of Foucault

Joyce Carol Oates is a famous American writer who won Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and other significant awards. And she has created lots of brilliant works. Under the guidance of Michelle Foucault's Heterotopias theory, this thesis aims to explore Joyce Carol Oates's opinion on power by analyzing her novel, Foxfire: Confession of a Girl Gang. Oates's opinion on power is relatively conservative, that is, only by safeguarding social norms within its limits and reconciling with society can one truly gain power.In Foxfire, Oates depicts a group of the girls who are oppressed by power, then incidentally gain power and gain profit by making use of it.However, they go too far and deviate from the social norms, and at last reconcile with social norms, realizing the essence of power is to safeguard social norms. Heterotopias means that the original function which is set by social norms in a space has changed, and safeguarding social norms could gain power. Besides, Oates advocates to make use of social norms to gain power. But, there is limitation for safeguarding and making use of social norms. And both should abide by social norms,unless new heterotopias is formed and power finally loses someday.Four chapters are included in this thesis. The first chapter analyzes a group of girls who are under the oppression of power. They hate power,and they do not understand how power is distributed. In the second chapter, the girls establish Foxfire, and they undergo a serious of stages such as losing power in heterotopias, awakening, and regaining power. It is demonstrated that only by safeguarding social norms can one gain power. The third chapter describes the process that the girls make use of social norms, excessively use power, and lose power in heterotopias. It unfolds the limits of safeguarding social nonns. The fourth chapter compares the girls' different ways to gain power and their results. It is concluded that only by reconciling with social norms can one truly gain power.This thesis takes Foxfire's different stages of gaining power as the clue, demonstrating that Oates approves of the significance of safeguarding social norms on gaining power. This shows that her opinion on power is relatively conservative.