Joyce Carol Oates (b1938) was born in N.Y state, daughter of a tool designer. She studied English at Universities of Syracuse & Wisconsin, then taught English at Uni of Detroit (1961-7) and Uni of Windsor in Ontario (1967-78). From 1978 she taught at Princeton Uni. In 1961 she married Raymond Smith, a fellow academic and editor. Together they published the literary magazine Ontario Review.
This American novelist was known for her vast literary production. Early in her career Oates wrote short stories for magazines and reviews, including for the Literary Review, and in 1963 she published her first collection of short stories, By the North Gate. Her first novel, With Shuddering Fall (1964) was followed by another short-story collection, Upon the Sweeping Flood (1965). Other notable fiction works included A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967) and Them (1969), winner of a National Book Award.
In 2001 Oates published the short-story collection Faithless: Tales of Transgression, richly sinful. Wild Nights! Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James and Hemingway (2008) featured fictionalised accounts of the final days of special American writers. And her stories in Black Dahlia and White Rose (2012) were loaded with menace; it fictionalised the horrid 1947 Black Dahlia murder in Calif. Evil Eye: Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong (2014) featured tales exploring the sinister outcomes of romantic entanglement.
Note her depictions of violence and evil in modern society. She typically portrayed American individuals whose deeply experienced lives ended in self-destruction owing to larger forces of violence. But why? Her life had been hard. Her severely autistic sister was institutionalised and Oates never saw her again. Oates' maternal grandfather was murdered in 1917, causing Oates mother's adoption; and Oates's paternal grandmother survived, at 14, her own father’s suicide. As a child, Oates’s next-door neighbour was guilty of arson and attempted murder charges against his family, and was gaoled in Attica. Her paternal grandmother, Blanche Woodside, lived with the family and was very close to Joyce.
Raised as a Catholic, Joyce discovered later in life that her grandmother Blanche had been a Jew who fled Germany and had kept her identity hidden forever. Granddaughter’s grief came from lamenting her lost cultural heritage, while acknowledging that her respect for culture and art was indeed inherited from gran. Since she discovered her family’s history was Jewish only AFTER gran’s death in 1970, Oates later drew on aspects of gran's life in writing the novel The Gravedigger's Daughter (2007). When Joyce’s loved husband Ray Smith died of pneumonia in 2008, she was so grief-stricken and demoralised that friends feared she might suicide. The pain never ended.
Swedish documentary-maker Stig Björkman had been long asking Oates to let him make a documentary about her life, but she always refused. Now, many years later, she finally agreed. The first half of the documentary (JCO: a Body in the Service of Mind) was Oates’ career story, connecting her early work to her later fame and tackling its subject by going back and forth between different bits of her life. The second half focused on earlier moments of family history. The viewers sat with her in her sanctuary, the writing room.
As Oates has written 100+ books and became famous, Björkman wanted to know why she focused on city riots, domestic beatings and murder, misery, mystery and yearning. Oates quietly gave careful analyses about the U.S’ violent history and contemporary times. She wrote about how power corrupted, described the presence of violence, told the forgotten stories and examined the idea of authenticity. Did it take constant work to maintain human virtues eg dignity and civilisation? Clearly yes, since brutality shuddered under the thin veneer of civilisation.
Note her depictions of violence and evil in modern society. She typically portrayed American individuals whose deeply experienced lives ended in self-destruction owing to larger forces of violence. But why? Her life had been hard. Her severely autistic sister was institutionalised and Oates never saw her again. Oates' maternal grandfather was murdered in 1917, causing Oates mother's adoption; and Oates's paternal grandmother survived, at 14, her own father’s suicide. As a child, Oates’s next-door neighbour was guilty of arson and attempted murder charges against his family, and was gaoled in Attica. Her paternal grandmother, Blanche Woodside, lived with the family and was very close to Joyce.
Raised as a Catholic, Joyce discovered later in life that her grandmother Blanche had been a Jew who fled Germany and had kept her identity hidden forever. Granddaughter’s grief came from lamenting her lost cultural heritage, while acknowledging that her respect for culture and art was indeed inherited from gran. Since she discovered her family’s history was Jewish only AFTER gran’s death in 1970, Oates later drew on aspects of gran's life in writing the novel The Gravedigger's Daughter (2007). When Joyce’s loved husband Ray Smith died of pneumonia in 2008, she was so grief-stricken and demoralised that friends feared she might suicide. The pain never ended.
Swedish documentary-maker Stig Björkman had been long asking Oates to let him make a documentary about her life, but she always refused. Now, many years later, she finally agreed. The first half of the documentary (JCO: a Body in the Service of Mind) was Oates’ career story, connecting her early work to her later fame and tackling its subject by going back and forth between different bits of her life. The second half focused on earlier moments of family history. The viewers sat with her in her sanctuary, the writing room.
As Oates has written 100+ books and became famous, Björkman wanted to know why she focused on city riots, domestic beatings and murder, misery, mystery and yearning. Oates quietly gave careful analyses about the U.S’ violent history and contemporary times. She wrote about how power corrupted, described the presence of violence, told the forgotten stories and examined the idea of authenticity. Did it take constant work to maintain human virtues eg dignity and civilisation? Clearly yes, since brutality shuddered under the thin veneer of civilisation.
awarded the 2010 National Humanities Medal
Björkman moved with the same ease in his film as Oates did when she wrote: curious & knowledgeable! From her tough beginnings on a farm, her difficult childhood and prolific career, the reclusive Oates spoke to the cultural shifts that shaped her moral compass and her keen interest in social justice. Bjorkman gained great access into her life and studio, her second marriage, her handwritten work and her beloved Jewish grand. Thus in this film, Oates carefully discussed the societal events that informed her writing.
In 2010 Pres Barack Obama awarded the National Humanities Medal at a White House ceremony to Oates for a lifetime of contributions to American literature. And she won the prestigious Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society (2019), a biennial literary award given to writers whose works have best dealt with themes of human freedom in society.
2019 Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society
Her blending of history, fiction and memory was as much a respectful tribute as it was powerful film-making. Thank you, director Stig Björkman, the man who examined her life via her books. From the poor upbringing on an upstate New York farm, via the boisterous university days and the long life of teaching and endless writing.
Australians can see the film from 6th Nov 2022.
Australians can see the film from 6th Nov 2022.