The Tragic Vision In Joyce Carol Oates’s Novels

Joyce Carol Oates, perhaps the best-known female writer of contemporary America,considers Tragedy as “the highest form of art”, arguing that “we feel that the triumph overnothingness that art represents is assured of a future beyond even our ability to imagine.”Oates adopts her favorite tragic approach to the plight of modern Americans and depictingthis plight along with the tragic spirit of American people is at the very essence of Oates’snovels.This dissertation discusses the tragic vision of Oates as it is presented in four novelswritten and published in four different periods: them, Angel of Light, Foxfire: Confessionsof a Girl Gang, The Falls. It explores the way in which Oates writes about the plight ofAmerican people from the1930s to the1960s and their inevitable failure. In Oates’s novels,the heroes and heroines are full of passion and action, and they are daring and defiant.However, confronted with fate, their own character defects, social pressure and ethicalconflicts, they are doomed to their tragic end. For Oates, these protagonists, asrepresentatives of modern American people, show personalities that make the embodimentof the tragic spirit.This dissertation consists of six chapters.Chapter One presents a brief introduction to Oates’s literary background and acomprehensive review of the Oates criticism at home and abroad. It then proceeds to statethe characteristics of classical tragedy and modern tragedy, and offers an overview of thearguments of contemporary scholars over modern tragedy. After a classification of tragedyby scholars, the theoretical framework is introduced. Finally, It concludes with a briefstatement of the research method, the structural layout and the significance of the project.Chapter Two begins with a brief introduction to the novel them and the notion of the Tragedy of Fate. Through a close examination of them, this chapter explores the way inwhich Oates writes about the plight of the average Americans suffering and struggling atthe invisible hand of Fate. Fate destroys men through a violent force that manifests itspower in premonition, contingency and coincidence. Confronted with fate, the heroes andheroines in them either survive with amazingly strong will or take up violence as theirweapon to fight back. Their fearless fighting releases their passion, and demonstrates theirvigor and unyielding spirit. It is also argued that Oates presents through the novel anoverwhelming feeling of absurdity brought to the subaltern classes by both poverty in the1930s and affluence in the1950s and60s in them.Chapter Three offers a critical analysis of Oates’s tragic vision as it is manifested inAngel of Light. Oates suggests that defects in character, such as impulsiveness, rashnessand excessive desire have brought about the destruction of many protagonists (the Tragedyof Character). In this novel, the novelist gives expression to this belief through anextremely painful story. The tragic story also highlights her concern about the uniqueproblems of the American society. In Angel of Light, it is contended, the passion ofAmerican people in the1960s is celebrated while Oates’s deep concern about Americansliving in a time of radical social uproar is also expressed.Chapter Four takes Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang as an example to study thetragic vision in Oates’s writing when she writes more specifically about the problems of asociety (Social Tragedy). In this novel, Oates examines the extreme misery of Americanwomen in the1950s when male violence was prevailing and females were compelled tosuffer both physically and mentally. According to Oates, the patriarchal society of the1950s accounts for women’s tragic sufferings, although through sisterhood, female writingand violence, the girls in Foxfire do manage to fight against the repressive society, andshow their adamant will and tremendous energy.Chapter Five offers a reading of The Falls as a tragedy brought about by ethicalconflicts (the Tragedy of Ethics). In the1950s, the protagonists in The Falls are confronted with compelling traditional beliefs and ethical values. On one hand, Christianity with itsdoctrines against homosexuality and science impose tremendous pressure on modernAmericans; one the other hand, individualism as America’s core value remains a dominantpower over the country. Irreconcilable conflicts between Christian doctrines andhomosexuality and those between good will and individualism throw the protagonists in anabysmal plight of misery and suffering. However, these heroes do not compromise. Instead,they fight bravely, sometimes at the cost of their lives. The Falls is a celebration of therebellious young men in the1950s, and it also demonstrates the tragic dilemma of modernAmerica.Chapter Six is the conclusion, in which I argue that Oates reflects on the plight ofAmericans in the20thcentury in her tragic writing. Sufferings and failures of the20thcentury Americans are vividly depicted in her novels. However, an unyielding spirit andnobility in the Americans is also presented. In Oates’s tragic novels, violence destroys theprotagonists, leading them to their ruins but it is also a vehicle through which theprotagonists’ vigor and vitality is presented. Oates favors no happy ending. However, she isno pessimist either. Her tragic writing brings with a serious form of optimism, and itprovides modern people with hope and the power to keep on moving.