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 Eastern Europe and contain allusions to Germany and the Germans that are of some interest in...