A 'Fourth Way' to Tell the Story

The study analyzes the factual and fictional elements in three novels by Joyce Carol Oates. The innovative genre used, which separates itself from previous similar forms of fact writing, aims to give a new voice to females who died in mysterious circumstances, and to provide a criticism of contemporary American society and its treatment of women.

This study is an analysis of the novels Black Water (1992), Blonde (2000), and My Sister, My Love (2008) by Joyce Carol Oates. Based on real-life characters (Mary Jo Kopechne, Marilyn Monroe, JonBenét Ramsey), these works blend fact and fiction, historical and poetic truth, and create a new way to recount facts that allow the writer to give a new voice to people who cannot speak for themselves anymore. The present book addresses the stories behind the novels, their genre and stylistic features, but is also an exploration of several aspects of American culture and society and their issues connected to consumerism, the cult of beauty and celebrity, and how they affect American women's lives and power relations with men.

Autorentext

Barbara Miceli holds a PhD in Euro-American Studies from Roma Tre University (Italy) and she is Assistant Professor at the University of Gdañsk (Poland) where she teaches American Studies subjects. She specializes in the relationship between fact and fiction in the contemporary American novel.

Klappentext

This study is an analysis of the novels Black Water (1992), Blonde (2000), and My Sister, My Love (2008) by Joyce Carol Oates. Based on real-life characters (Mary Jo Kopechne, Marilyn Monroe, JonBenét Ramsey), these works blend fact and fiction, historical and poetic truth, and create a new way to recount facts that allow the writer to give a new voice to people who cannot speak for themselves anymore. The present book addresses the stories behind the novels, their genre and stylistic features, but is also an exploration of several aspects of American culture and society and their issues connected to consumerism, the cult of beauty and celebrity, and how they affect American women s lives and power relations with men.

Inhalt
Black Water: The Reconstruction of a Forgotten Character The Chappaquiddick Incident Blonde: A Reconstruction of the Self beyond the Myth Marilyn Monroe and the Problem of Identity My Sister, My Love: Memory, Forgetting and Social Criticism The Ramsey Case