On Psychological Realism In Oates’s Short Stories

As one of the imperative writers in the contemporary American literary circle，Joyce Carol Oates has won a large number of rewards such as six times being finalistof National Book Awards，three Pulitzer Prize nominations，29Prize Stories：The OHenry Awards， Faulkner Award and Fitzgerald Literary Award for LifetimeAchievement Award and etc．Since her first collection of short stories published in1963，Oates has already published159works including novels， poetry， proses，scripts， book review， biography and literary theories etc，with all-inclusive formsand various genres encompassed and many different styles embedded，but it is obviousthat her most noticeable achievement is still in short stories．Oates has frequentlyappeared on most important literature awards lists for over half a century，thus theresearch on her writings will be much valuable for us to grasp the aestheticperspectives of contemporary American literature．Since World Literature Recent Developments and Foreign Literature Studiespositioned Oates as a Psychological Realism writer，the Psychological Realism hasbeen mentioned frequently as a keyword in domestic media and amongcritics．However，with regard to “what is the Psychological Realism?” and “HowOates’s works showcase the Psychological Realism?” it still can be found confusingand self-contradicted in the prevailing discussions．This dissertation presents Psychological Realism as a starting point and theme ofthe whole study，put forward Oates’s adept short stories as the objects and choose threeof her fictions in different period as examples．The dissertation will also explore howPsychological Realism embedded in Oates’s works by clarifying the concept ofPsychological Realism and analyzing the texts．Moreover，both the American societyand the spiritual world of humanity will be involved to demonstrate thatPsychological Realism is the real soul of Oates’s novels．The whole dissertation is constituted by four chapters．The first chapter is a brief introduction and an overview of current Oates studies and will list the researchsignificance of Psychological Realism．Chapter Two is divided into three parts，whosefirst part is to clarify the concept of Psychological Realism by analyzing its literaryaesthetic orientation and values，neglecting its application in psychology．The secondpart retrospect the origin and development of Psychological Realism，then the thirdpart analyses the similarities and differences between the Psycho-realism novels andthe stream-of-consciousness novels．Chapter Three is the core of this dissertation，which will choose Oates’s three short stories from different of her writing periods，early， transformation and recent respectively，to summarize the PsychologicalRealism embedded in her short stories． As well， it will also prove Oates’stransmission， contribution and breakthrough in Psycho-realism Novels by textperusing，text analysis as well as vertical and horizontal comparison．Chapter Four isthe deep exploration part．It discusses Psycho-realism mentality of Oates’s novels，which probes into both autobiographical and social source of Oates’s artisticPrinciples，then generalize the overall look in her Psycho-realism short stories andevaluates her realistically．With the development of human society and the popularityof psychology，literary aesthetic demands has been changed overwhelmingly; thereforea breakthrough formation and innovation skills turn to be common pursuits amongcontemporary novelists，at this time，Oates is seemed outstanding by using high-levelwriting skills in portraying individuals’ psychology． The conclusion part is anoverview and expansion of the previous passages．...