Undergoing a Novel

Research Project: Student Handout

Joyce Carol Oates
National Book Award

Joyce Carol Oates
I come from people who did not go to college. They didn't even finish high school. People who one might call ordinary Americans who are very hardworking. Who were not self conscious and were not thinking about themselves very much. I observed their lives. Some of their lives were quite difficult. There was a certain measure of violence in my world. I'm not from a middle class world. I'm from another kind of world. And I absorbed things without being conscious of them.

[ Video ] Low High [ Audio ] Quicktime

[ Key to Success ] Preparation

Research Challenge
Joyce Carol Oates describes the world she grew up in. The measure of violence she describes has influenced her novels. The themes she develops often deal with the nature of evil and its effect on people's lives. While her stories are not autobiographical, her writing interests were shaped by what she absorbed from the culture in which she lived. As Carol Shields described in the video, Joyce Carol Oates's antennae were up and her whole world was available to her.

RESEARCH FOCUS
The Novelist's Available World

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Use the following research questions to get started. Add your own throughout the research process.
   1. How are novelists influenced by their childhood experiences?
   2. Can you better understand a novelist's work by reading his or her biography?
   3. How might you absorb the things around you to help you become a writer?

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