Bloomsbury Academic Love Eclipsed: Joyce Carol Oates's "Faustian Moral Vision"

This book demonstrates the greatness of Joyce Carol Oates, who is a nominee for a Nobel Award in Literature. Nancy Watanabe discusses Oates's previously undiscovered roots in the literatures of Europe and Asia. Watanabe's thought-provoking analyses are enhanced by a cinematically inspired principle of organization that reflects Oates's own stratagems. In a massive build-up of metaphorical links between a Copernican world of nature and actions taken by ordinary people in the course of their daily living, Oates portrays America as a land of justice that is always a step behind a Faustian desire for freedom to pursue material desires. Oates documents an eclipsing of a divinely inspired Christian love by Faustian quest. Through this study, readers will gain a broader perspective and a more accurate assessment of Oates's global significance. From the Author BOOK SUMMARY University Press of America Love Eclipsed: Joyce Carol Oates's Faustian Moral Vision Nancy Ann Watanabe This book demonstrates the greatness of Joyce Carol Oates, who is a nominee for a Nobel Award in Literature. Nancy Watanabe discusses Oates's previously undiscovered roots in the literatures of Europe and Asia. Watanabe's thought-provoking analyses are enhanced by a cinematically inspired principle of organization that reflects Oates's own stratagems. In a massive build-up of metaphorical links between a Copernican world of nature and actions taken by ordinary people in the course of their daily living, Oates portrays America as a land of justice that is always a step behind a Faustian desire for freedom to pursue material desires. Oates documents an eclipsing of divinely inspired Christian love by Faustian quest. Watanabe discusses A GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS as Oates's first important novel. The symbolic theme of rape and rapaciousness established in that novel is traced in several flashback chapters to its provenance in Shakespeare's THE RAPE OF LUCRECE, Pope's THE RAPE OF THE LOCK, Rousseau's JULIE, and Goethe's WERTHER. To show that Oates perpetuates traditional values, such as pagan and Christian, society and the individual, Dr. Watanabe strides rapidly through the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment, Romantic Movement, and Modern Period, panning a critical eye from Homer to Kafka, Sartre, Hemingway, Yeats, and Oates. In successive chapters, she interprets THE WHEEL OF LOVE, NIGHT-SIDE, THE HUNGRY GHOSTS, THE SEDUCTION AND OTHER STORIES, SON OF THE MORNING, A SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION, SOLSTICE, THE RISE OF LIFE ON EARTH, and BLACK WATER. A chapter on Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and a finale on Chinese parables and Islamic culture buttress the book's perspective on Oates's Pre-Genesaic moral vision and Post-Symbolist affinity with Yeats. Readers will gain a broader perspective and a more accurate assessment of Oates's global significance. December 1997 216 pages Burgundy hardcover Silver leaf stamped--ISBN 0-7618-0934-1 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nancy Ann Watanabe is the author of Beloved Image: The Drama of W. B. Yeats 1865-1939 (University Press of America, 1995), which was chosen at Yale University for the René Wellek Critical Collection as an essential work in the History of Criticism and Literary Theory. She has taught British, American, French, and Comparative Literature at the University of Oklahoma, Norman; the University of Alaska, Fairbanks; Boise State University, Indiana University, Bloomington; and the University of Washington. A recipient of Fulbright and National Endowment for the Humanities faculty fellowship awards, she has also lectured in Pennsylvania, New York, and Texas. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * University Press of America 4720 Boston Way Lanham, Maryland 20706 About the Author Nancy Ann Watanabe is the author ofBeloved Image: The Drama o