ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER TWO: THE CONVERSATION OF THE CHARACTERS

1. Characters in Action: Conversation as Speech Acts
2. Varieties of Dialogue and Monologue

CHAPTER THREE: OFFICIAL AUTHORITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL VOICE

1. Communal Habits and Private Yearnings
2. Matters of the Law
3. Cura Animarum I
4. Cura Animarum II

CHAPTER FOUR: FAMILIAL BONDS

1. The Inescapable Family
2. A Sense of Family
3. The Formative Years: Small Children and Their Parents
4. The Phase of Evaluation: Adolescents and Parents
5. Afterthoughts

CHAPTER FIVE: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

1. The Nature of the Love Stories
2. By the North Gate and Upon the Sweeping Flood: The Love Relationship as an Escape Into a Better World
3. The Wheel of Love, Marriages and Infidelities and Miscellaneous Stories from The Goddess and Night-Side:
   1. Liberation from Familial Bonds
   2. Marriage as Idea and Reality
   3. Infidelities
4. Crossing the Border, All the Good People I've Left Behind and A Sentimental Education:
   1. Reciprocity and the Twosome
   2. The Quest for Spiritual Reciprocity
   3. The Twosome and Others

CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION

NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Excerpt

In the following study Oates's "re-imaginings" of short story classics provide the starting point for an examination of her aesthetic as it manifests itself in contrast to the original narratives. In five imitations of older writers Oates formulates a statement first on the specific merits of conventional techniques and secondly on the necessity of realigning such guidelines in order to effect contemporary relevance. This discussion aims at illustrating how and to what purpose Oates alters these famous models and, furthermore, to present an initial exposition of the basic conflict between her adherence to convention and her effort to contemporize the short story.

The second step in the following investigation is to compare Oates's personal use of short story genres with traditional models. Transitions, the remodeling of external forms, according to the influences of the times is an inherent characteristic of genre evolution. Although a 'genre' itself consists of specific attributes, 'common denominators', it nevertheless allows for a certain degree of flexibility in the employment of these criteria. An author's individual reformation of given conventions, his development of new, untried techniques or his 'mixing' of genres may unveil personal objectives, artistic impetus, and theoretical commitments. A study of Oates's short stories on this basis presents a means whereby the degree and nature of her deviations from her predecessors (and contemporaries) can be ascertained….

The third method of explicating Oates's relation to tradition is the examination of her principles of organization employed in the short story collections. This approach illustrates the means by which Oates attempts to solve the problem of limited range inherent to the short story. Through the composition of short story 'cycles' Oates manages to achieve an accumulative 'wholeness,' intertwining individual narratives to grant them an 'exhaustive' effect. The discussion of her organizational tactics, with special attention to the development of interlinkage, thus provides an additional instrument in clarifying Oates's aesthetic stance.

The intention of this study is to probe beyond the thematic surface to delineate Oates's formal diversity and thereby elucidate her literary motivation and singular orientation. Through this threefold approach the aesthetic basis of Oates's short stories and also its practical consequences become tangible.