Oates, Joyce Carol

Joyce Carol Oates has been named the current Dark Lady of American Letters (after Mary McCarthy and Susan Sontag)—a designation given to an intellectual woman writer who challenges the categorization of “woman” writer.

Born on June 16, 1938, Oates was raised, along with two younger siblings, in the rural upstate New York town of Millersport. Oates's mother was a homemaker; her father a machinist. Her paternal grandmother lived with the family and was a key supporter of Oates's writing, giving her a portable typewriter for her 14th birthday. Oates received a scholarship to Syracuse University and earned a B.A. in 1960 as class valedictorian. While at Syracuse, she won a Mademoiselle writing prize (the same one Sylvia Plath had won a few years earlier). In 1961, she earned her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and married Raymond Smith. In 1962, both Smith and Oates taught at the University of Detroit; from 1968 to 1978, the couple moved to the University of Windsor in Canada. In 1978, they settled in Princeton, New Jersey. Smith died in 2008. Oates is currently a Distinguished Professor in Humanities at Princeton University.

Since 1959, Oates has published hundreds of short stories and essays, nearly 60 novels, dozens of plays, and more than 15 collections of poetry, as well as books for children and young adults. Her novel them (1969) won the National Book Award, and three novels, Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. We Were the Mulvaneys (1996) was selected in 2001 by Oprah Winfrey for her book club.

Oates's early novels were set in Detroit: them, Expensive People, and The Garden of Earthly Delights (1967–69) each depict the emerging class consciousness of a young protagonist. The violent sexual awakening of another teen character is illustrated in her widely anthologized story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (1966). Several novels from the 1970s focus on characters with misguided worldviews (e.g., Son of the Morning [1978]). Other works have college campus settings (e.g., “In the Region of Ice” [1970]; The Hungry Ghosts [1974]; Unholy Loves [1979]; and Marya: A Life [1986]). In the early 1980s, Oates published three novels that depict the American dream (and failure) while also subverting the conventions of 19th-century domestic gothic and romance: Bellefleur (1980), A Bloodsmoor Romance (1984), and Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984).

Oates has also focused on the dualities within the female psyche, as depicted in two female characters (e.g., in Solstice [1985] and You Must Remember This [1987]) and as seen in twins, under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith (e.g., Lives of the Twins [1987] and Soul/Mate [1989]). Her favorite subjects, however, are the American family, the American dream, and the violence that seems to be inevitable in its pursuit (e.g., American Appetites [1989]; Because It Is Bitter, [Page 1042]and Because It is My Heart [1990]; and We Were The Mulvaneys [1996]). In 2000, Oates’ Blonde, a fictional account of the life of Marilyn Monroe, a woman not unlike many of Oates’ characters, became a best seller. Oates also started writing young adult novels at this time, including Big Mouth and Ugly Girl (2002).

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