Where I've Been, and where I'm Going: Essays, Reviews, and ProsePlume, 1999 - 386 pages This compilation of nearly 50 recent essays and reviews by one of America's leading literary figures demonstrates Joyce Carol Oates's passionate and wide-ranging interests. Fairytales ancient and modern, the literature of serial killers, surrealist art. boxing -- these are but a few of the subjects to which Oates turns her formidable intelligence. From studies of literary and art history, to examinations of the creative process and the role Of the artist in society. Oates's eloquent and thought-provoking commentaries remind us of the pleasures of the essay form. Included here are significant studies of such literary personalities as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Raymond Chandler. Sylvia Plath and Paul Bowles. among others. Where I've Been, and Where I'm Going also features Oates's writings about her own work, including essays on Expensive People. Wonderland, and Foxfire. Like her 1988 collection. (Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities, these fascinating essays are a privileged glimpse into one of the most fascinating minds of our era. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 86
Page 23
... story we are left to contemplate with the betrayed and now frightened housewife - heroine her mysterious hus- band , a surgeon , who in his impenetrable maleness would seem to be , himself , Bluebeard's egg : " This is something the story ...
... story we are left to contemplate with the betrayed and now frightened housewife - heroine her mysterious hus- band , a surgeon , who in his impenetrable maleness would seem to be , himself , Bluebeard's egg : " This is something the story ...
Page 140
... story , appropriate to a pitiless world in which , at least in metaphor , the punishment fits the crime . ) Bowles's voyager is unnamed , only the Professor ; he is both an alle- gorical figure and a succinctly characterized individual ...
... story , appropriate to a pitiless world in which , at least in metaphor , the punishment fits the crime . ) Bowles's voyager is unnamed , only the Professor ; he is both an alle- gorical figure and a succinctly characterized individual ...
Page 359
... story virtually no one could know , " Silkie , " which never found its way into any hardcover collection of mine ... story of which I remain peculiarly fond , per- haps for its unimpeded forward motion — so different from the prose of my ...
... story virtually no one could know , " Silkie , " which never found its way into any hardcover collection of mine ... story of which I remain peculiarly fond , per- haps for its unimpeded forward motion — so different from the prose of my ...
Contents
Where Is an Author? | 3 |
In Olden Times When Wishing Was Having | 9 |
The Aesthetics of Fear | 26 |
Copyright | |
32 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
adolescent adventure aesthetic American Anne Anne Sexton artist beautiful Benito Cereno Billy Budd biography body called career Chandler characters child classic color Conrad's contemporary critic death Dennis Nilsen dramatic dream Emily Dickinson emotion essays experience eyes fact fairy fantasy father female fiction film Fitzgerald genre girl Grace Paley Hemingway Henry horror human images imagination irony James's Jean Stafford Jeffrey Dahmer John Kerouac killed language literary lives look Magritte male Marlowe Melville Melville's memoir memory Mike Tyson mother murder mystery mystery-detective narrative never novel P. D. James painting passion perhaps Philip Marlowe poems poet poetry prose published Rabbit Raymond Chandler reader romance Scott Fitzgerald seemingly seems sense serial killer Sexton sexual Sheeler short stories soul Stafford suggest Sylvia Plath tale Theron Ware tion tragic truth Tyson Updike's victims voice Wideman woman women writer written young