Joyce Carol Oates, We Were the Mulvaneys

Paola Trimarco (The Open University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1996

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

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Joyce Carol Oates’s 26th novel,

We Were the Mulvaneys

(1996), is a darkly realistic story of an idyllic American family and its fall from grace. Perhaps Oates’s best-known work, it is studied for its literary style and its social and psychological portrayal of the consequences of rape.

Like many of Oates’s novel, this is set in upstate New York, where the Mulvaney family live on a farm called “High Point” from 1955 to 1980. The father, Michael, owns a roofing company, and with his wife, Corinne, is a stalwart of the community. Their oldest son Mike Jr is a star athlete at his school. Their middle son, Patrick, is a deep-thinking student, destined for great things. Their only daughter, Marianne, is a popular cheerleader at school who appears to do everything to perfection. The

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Citation: Trimarco, Paola. "We Were the Mulvaneys". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 January 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14012, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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