Joyce Carol Oates' S Views On Male In Them, Wonderland And The Falls

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most famous female writers in American literature.Because of her diverse writing methods and wide range of subjects,Oates is considered as “the female version of Faulkner.” As a seriously realistic writer,Oates,with strong sense of social responsibility,not only bravely discloses the dark sides of the society but also actively looks for solutions to social contradictions.In the process of exploration,she sees the importance of harmonious relationships in dealing with social contradictions,calls for the equality between man and woman and speaks for “human.” However,on the basis of her female writer's identity and feminist tendencies in her works,many scholars mistake Oates for a feminist writer.Therefore,with the help of Masculinity,this thesis endeavors to analyze male images in her three representative works---them,Wonderland and The Falls,belonging to the early,the transitional and late periods,and explore Oates' s views on male characters adopting the methods of Close Reading and Comparison Analysis.Firstly,this thesis summarizes three types of typical male images through the analysis of male characteristics in three works,such as the violent and mad heroes in them,the males with schizoid personality in Wonderland and the code-heroes in The Falls.Then,according to the inter-textual comparison of Oates' s works,it is found that male's masculinity has undergone a significant changes: hegemonic masculinity is dominated in Oates' s early work,and the hegemony begins to dissolute in transitional work,then the new masculinity is constructed in her late work.Males possess the typical hegemonic masculinity with violence in Oates' s early work but its hegemony has its drawbacks in the establishment of harmonious relationships between man and woman.Under the long-term of control and oppression,woman has to fight for freedom.Hence,woman's resistance arouses man's reflection.The hegemony of masculinity begins to dissolute along with the introspection in the transitional period.During late period,violent factors disappear totally and man forms the new masculinity.Finally,by analyzing the transformation trajectory of masculinity,it is found that Oates' s views on male have changed form early criticism to late highly praise.Compared with the previous studies on Oates and her works,three innovations are founded in this thesis: Firstly,using comparative analysis method,it analyzes and summarizes the male images through inner-textual comparison and inter-textual comparison and finds out the transformation of Masculinity.Secondly,analyzing the male images with the help of Masculinity extends the scope of research on Oates and her works,which is more beneficial to understand Oates' s works comprehensively.Thirdly,focusing on the male images in Oates' s works illustrates that Oates pays the same attention to man as woman.The changing views on maleshow her concern and wish for the establishment of harmonious relationships between man and woman.On the basis of Masculinity,this thesis figures out the male images in different periods of Oate's works and finds out the transformation of Masculinity to show Oate's changing views on male,which extends the scope of Oates' s studies and provides a new way.