Preface
Introduction: Family, Power, Resistance

1. Mothers and Fathers: The Dmotion of the Ideal
2. Mothers and Daughters: The Refusal of Innocence
3. Brothers and Sisters: The Refusal of Substitute Relation
4. Fathers and Sons: The Refusal of Violence
5. Transgression I: Mother-Son Romance
6. Transgression II: Father-Daughter Incest
7. The Feminist Unconscious
8. The Transgressive Other

Notes
References
Index

Excerpt

But Oates' work has been examined from perspectives other than that of feminism. The general problem with that criticism to date, however, is a failure to discern and describe an underlying structure uniting the diverse plots, characters, styles, and genres of her prodigious oeuvre. This book maintains that family, power, and resistance, concepts interacting throughout Oates' fiction, provide the key to understanding the genesis, energy, and meaning of her works. Briefly, the complicated stories of various characters in many different settings typically take place in the context of family relationships, and since the institution of the family directly shapes individual perception of the social and financial forces of the greater world, Oates' disturbing portrayals of troubled families can and do address complex issues of power in contemporary society—economic dislocation, gender inequity, and violence—as they are experienced in intimate relationships. And if plot in Oates' work customarily deals with the family, theme always concerns complicated issues of personal, familial, and public power. Oates' characteristic stance towards the plot of family and the theme of power is challenging, interrogative, even revolutionary resistance.