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Joyce Carol Oates
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Elaine Showalter
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'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?': Joyce Carol Oates (Women Writers : Texts and Contexts) Hardcover – December 1, 1994

by Elaine Showalter (Editor)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 78 ratings
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Joyce Carol Oates’s prize-winning story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” takes up troubling subjects that continue to occupy her in her fiction: the romantic longings and limited options of adolescent women; the tensions between mothers and daughters; the sexual victimization of women; and the American obsession with violence.  Inspired by a magazine story about a serial killer, its remarkable portrait of the dreamy teenager Connie has made it a feminist classic.  Connie’s life anticipates the emergence of American society from the social innocence of the fifties into the harsher contemporary realities of war, random violence, and crime.  The story was the basis for the movie Smooth Talk, which became the subject of much feminist debate.

This casebook includes an introduction by the editor, a chronology of Oates’s life, an authoritative text of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” an essay by Oates on Smooth Talk, the original Life article about the serial killer, ten critical essays (including two about the film), and a bibliography.

The contributors are Brenda O. Daly, Christina Marsden Gillis, Don Moser, Tom Quirk, B. Ruby Rich, R.J.R. Rockwood, Larry Rubin, Gretchen Schulz, Marie Mitchell Oleson Urbanski, Joyce M. Wegs, Marilyn C. Wesley, and Joan D. Winslow.

 

Previous page
  1. Print length
    165 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Rutgers University Press
  4. Publication date
    December 1, 1994
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0813521343
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0813521343
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elaine Showalter is Avalon Foundation Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. She is the author and editor of many books on women’s writing, including Sister’s Choice: Tradition and Change in American Women’s Writing.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rutgers University Press (December 1, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 165 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0813521343
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0813521343
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 78 ratings

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  1. Elaine Showalter

    Elaine Showalter

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  2. Joyce Carol Oates

    Joyce Carol Oates

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    Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
78 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Adel Andersen
5.0 out of 5 stars You'll be charmed by Oates' world
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2005
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There must be a lot of people, who became Oates'fans after they read "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Typically, Teenagers tend to disobey adults like their parents and teachers and to be self-centered. Heroine Connie is such a girl. Connie's charactor will arouse sympathy from readers. There must be many points that we used to think and behave like her when we were teenagers.

Connie is a self-centered girl. She is not chummy with her family and always resists her mother. She does not go to a church, does not help her mother, is not interested in family matters, and looks down on people. She cares her appearance, hangs out with her friends, likes shopping, and listens to rock'n rolls. She is, so-called, a typical rebellious teenager. One day, a mysterious guy shows up and causes something wired for her.

Joyce Carol Oates, the author of this novel, has been recieved many awards. This work was made into the movie, retitled for "Smooth Talk." This book will attract you and is worth reading. I think you will like it.
6 people found this helpful
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Brad
5.0 out of 5 stars Joyce Carol Oates is quality writing personified
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2021
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Just compare Ms Oates with any other story writer: she started her career early, age 19, and keeps going on and on and on.... through novels and articles and more more stories. Arnold Friend is an unforgettable character. The vendor: a used book my copy precisely matched the description. I've just ordered another collection of Oates' work. If you don't know her work, start with this earliest collection. You won't be sorry. Not many writing craftspersons were creating what she was creating, at such a level of excellence, as a teenager.
2 people found this helpful
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elysejody
4.0 out of 5 stars Emotionally gripping with excellent thought-analysis
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2023
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Joyce, Carol Oates’s ability to transmit terror is grippingly scary. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” was written in 1966.
Twenty years later a movie was made called “Smooth Talk” with Laura Dern as Connie and Treat Williams as Arnold Friend.

Connie, is the fifteen protagonist. She knows she is pretty. She’s also a little spoiled. Her mother used to be pretty, but now Connie’s beauty is what her mother finds most valuable about her.
Connie’s innocent/or rather naivety-flirting with the wrong boy: Arnold Friend; (disguised psychopathic killer) has horrifying consequences.

The terror of the story comes from the recognition that there must be thousands of Connie’s in the world.

Arnold shows up at Connie’s house (parents are not home).
Arnold threatens to tear the screen door down (“The Three Little Pigs” reminder)….
or…. Connie is a little like “Little Red Riding Hood” . . . Succumbing to sexual appetite exactly as Little Red Riding Hood does when she climbs into bed with the Wolf.
Connie tried to lock the screen door …..
Arnold says:
“But why lock it . . . It’s just a screen door. It’s just nothing . . . I mean anybody can break through a screen, door and glass and wood and iron or anything else. If he needs to, anybody at all, and specifically Arnold Friend. If the place got lit up with a fire, honey, you’d come runnin’ out into my arms”.

“She put her hand against the screen. She watched her self push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere inside the house . . . Watching this body and this head of long hair, moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited”.

elysejody
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Ellie 14
3.0 out of 5 stars Intense
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2016
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I read the book for a class on Joyce Carol Oates, but found it hard to get through a I didn't like any of the characters and the subject matter didn't appeal to me.
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Raoul Duke
5.0 out of 5 stars Purchased for literature class
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2011
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I bought this book for my literature class - it was excellent, my first time reading Oates and I most definately recommend her if you are interested in literature (or even if you're not - the background of her short story is interesting - based on a real-life serial killer in Arizona). The critical essays in the back of the book are invaluable, so if you are looking to write a research paper this is a fanstastic purchase!
5 people found this helpful
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CallistianStar
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Story
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2011
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The price is a little bit much for this short story that you can find online, but otherwise still a really compelling coming-of-age story.

What this book offers, however, is just a couple of papers of critique on the book and what Oates meant by some of the events in the book.

I needed this for a class, but I don't mind keeping it. Still a good buy.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Lina
5.0 out of 5 stars Libro
Reviewed in Spain on September 19, 2015
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He comprado este libro para el curso de inglés. Tiene un CD con las historias grabadas. Todo bien y correcto.
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DMG
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfecto
Reviewed in Spain on May 11, 2015
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Todo räpido y eficaz. Antes de lo que esperaba. Volvere al mismo lugar a comprar. sin duda alguna lo hare
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JB
2.0 out of 5 stars Recibes el 75%
Reviewed in Spain on December 15, 2014
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Compre 2 unidades puesto que son para un curso y compre para otro compañero. Pues solo uno de los libros venia con e CD.. el otro solo con el pegamento en la solapa, pero sin disco.
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