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Tone Clusters: the Joyce Carol Oates discussion group archive

Sunday, December 02, 2007

JCO: them

Hello all:

A few weeks back, I sought help from you knowledgeable people with regard to a graduate school research paper I am in the process of completing. I am seeking help again. Part of the paper deals with the controversy over whether or not them is a work of naturalism. In the texts of literary criticism I have come across, all of the scholars say them has naturalistic elements--or even pseudo-naturalistic elements--but they add the novel is not a work of naturalism. That much is very clear to me. But at the same time, the critics do not come out and say clearly what the novel is specifically--a kind of realism, an experimental work, something else? My inclination is to say the novel is work of realism, since realism is generally the domain in which JCO works. Some of the literary critics I am dealing with include some highly regarded big shots when it comes to scholarship on JCO: Brenda Daly, Gavin Cologne-Brooks, Joanne Creighton, Greg Johnson. And I think there is an assumption among them and other critics that folks either know or consider them to be more realistic than anything else.

Basically, if anyone knows anything, if anybody can direct to a clarifying book or an article, let me know.

Richard


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