You are here

(Modern) Detroit-as-experience: Understanding Joyce Carol Oates's "them"

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
2003
Summary:
Joyce Carol Oates's novel them and Wallace Stevens's poetry can be examined in light of Oates's critical essay "Against Nature." These fictions illustrate Oates's idea of Nature not existing as a noun, Nature, but as an experience which we attempt to understand through language. Indirectly, Oates calls on other authors and theorists to argue for a redefinition of Nature. She comes to conclude that what we call "Nature" in reality exists as Nature-as-experience. Once we fully understand Nature-as-experience, we can utilize those principles to understand a relatively new occurrence in history and literature: the manmade city. In them, the city, in much the same way as Nature, becomes City-as-experience and in fact lives in the experience of the character Maureen.
Title: (Modern) Detroit-as-experience: Understanding Joyce Carol Oates's "them".
403 views
229 downloads
Name(s): Houser, Tai Lynden
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Faraci, Mary, Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2003
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 70 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Joyce Carol Oates's novel them and Wallace Stevens's poetry can be examined in light of Oates's critical essay "Against Nature." These fictions illustrate Oates's idea of Nature not existing as a noun, Nature, but as an experience which we attempt to understand through language. Indirectly, Oates calls on other authors and theorists to argue for a redefinition of Nature. She comes to conclude that what we call "Nature" in reality exists as Nature-as-experience. Once we fully understand Nature-as-experience, we can utilize those principles to understand a relatively new occurrence in history and literature: the manmade city. In them, the city, in much the same way as Nature, becomes City-as-experience and in fact lives in the experience of the character Maureen.
Identifier: 9780496181759 (isbn), 13011 (digitool), FADT13011 (IID), fau:9878 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2003.
Subject(s): Oates, Joyce Carol,--1938---Them
Detroit (Mich)--In literature
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13011
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.