关键词: 欧茨小说; 美国社会; 现实关怀; 人性探索; 文学观

Abstract:

Five novels by the famous contemporary American female writer, Joyce Carol Oates, including Black Water, Blonde, Zombie, My Sister, My Love, and The Falls, are drawn directly from and are based on five major events in American society, namely the Kennedy-Chappaquiddick scandal, the mysterious death of Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe, the case of the Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, the murder of the American child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey, and the “Love Canal” pollution case. Adopting the perspectives of literary sociology and literary psychology, this paper attempts to analyze how Oates transforms these social events into literary works of universal significance, to explore the connection and tension between Oates’s novels and American social history, to analyze the strong realistic concern and critical spirit reflected in her novels, and to investigate the author’s profound insights into and observations of human nature.

Keywords: Oates’s fiction; American society; realistic concern; exploration of humanity; views of literature