| The fortunes of women in Joyce Carol Oates's oeuvre are miserable and pathetic, because they are victimized by the mechanisms of patriarchy. The prevalent structure of class stratification and the socialization of women as sex objects assign women a subordinate and submissive status, so much so that they become economically marginal and dependent on men. In essence, both class and gender work to reinforce and perpetuate the exploitation and degradation of women under male dominance. Since women are doubly exploited, they easily fall prey to neurosis, violence, murder, and death, imposed on them by forces beyond their control. This study is to analyze how the novelist deals with the problems of class and gender in American society and how she embodies her critique of patriarchy in her literary praxis.; Chapter one sets up the paradigm of interrelationship between class and gender with regard to the exploitation and degradation of women under capitalism. Chapter two deals with the tragic fate of lower-class women, specifically, Clara and her mother, Pearl, in A Garden of Earthly Delights, and Maureen and her mother, Loretta, in them. Chapter three charts the protest of middle-class women against the dehumanization and commodification of women as sex objects and their quest for self-liberation as shown in Brigit Stott of Unholy Loves and Elena of Do with Me What You Will. Chapter four concentrates on upper-middle-class women on the decadence and corruption, which accompany affluence, materialism, and excessive desire, as represented by Nada of Expensive People and Isabel of Angel of Light.; Oates has scrutinized women's questions in her works from the very beginning of her writing career, though in a way some feminists disagree about. As an underprivileged group, women have long been suppressed. Since the middle of eighties, Oates has published several novels--Solstice, Marya: A Life, You Must Remember This, I Lock My Door upon Myself, The Rise of Life on Earth, and Black Water--which deal with aspects of women's lives with emphasis on their efforts to accomplish transcendence and self-identity. By fictionalizing her characters, Oates has successfully created an artifact which embodies some feminist criticism in literary praxis. |
