Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Oates, Joyce Carol - Hanspeter Dörfel (essay date 1990)

Oates, Joyce Carol - Hanspeter Dörfel (essay date 1990)

Hanspeter Dörfel (essay date 1990)

SOURCE: Dörfel, Hanspeter. “Images of Germany and the Germans in Some of Joyce Carol Oates' Short Stories.” In Germany and German Thought in American Literature: Proceedings of the German-American Conference in Paderborn, May 16-19, 1990, edited by Peter Freese, pp. 267-84. Essen, Germany: Verlag Die Blaue Eule, 1990.

[In the following essay, Dörfel discusses aspects of Oates's short stories set in or alluding to Germany.]

INTRODUCTION

Germany and the Germans do not play an important role in Joyce Carol Oates' total short story output. In a 1982 interview she claimed to have written more than 300 short stories.1 Yet among this vast number, to my knowledge, only three stories have a German setting—“Master Race” (1984),2 “Ich bin ein Berliner” (1982), and “Our Wall” (1982).3 Several of the stories in the collection Last Days are set in...

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