Love Eclipsed

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.

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.

Booknews

The author situates Oates by concentrating on thematologically coherent variations in her works and by tracing the path of imagery clusters generated around rape and rapaciousness as a motif. After briefly discussing precedent examples of somewhat similar treatments of the core theme by Shakespeare and Pope, Rousseau, and Goethe, she traces the imagery in selected short stories and novels so as to elucidate its varying manifestations in the work of Oates. In so doing, she reveals new dimensions in Oate's knowledge, artistry, and craftsmanship. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Nancy Ann Watanabe is the author ofBeloved Image: The Drama of W.B. Yeats 1865-1939 also published by University Press of America, which was chosen for the Renè Wellek Critical Collection as an essential work in the History of Criticism and Literary Theory. She has taught English, French, and Comparative Literature at the University of Oklahoma, University of Alaska, Boise State University, Indiana University, and University of Washington. A recipient of Fulbright and NEH faculty fellowship awards, she has lectured in Pennsylvania, New York, and Texas.