"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (Women Writers : Texts and Contexts) (Paperback)

by Joyce Carol Oates (Author), Elaine Showalter (Editor, Introduction)
Key Phrases: trashy daydreams, existential allegory, vast sunlit, Arnold Friend, Joyce Carol Oates, Smooth Talk (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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, and 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 Schultz, Marie Mitchell Oleson Urbanski, Joyce M. Wegs, and Joan D. Winslow. 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. A volume in the Women Writers: Texts and Contexts Series.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (November 4, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813521351
• ISBN-13: 978-0813521350
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #593,292 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rehashing a classic, July 1, 2004

By A Customer

This book is an interesting look at Joyce Carol Oates's short story, "Where are you going? Where have you been?". It includes articles about theories regarding the story and its 1980 movie version, but more importantly this edition includes the actual news article that inspired the lurid tale of Connie and A. Friend as well as Ms. Oates own comments on the piece.