Night-Side: Eighteen Tales is a collection of 18 works of short fiction by

Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...

published by Vanguard Press in 1977.

Stories

Those stories first appearing in literary journals are indicated. *"Night-Side" (''

Queen’s Quarterly ''Queen's Quarterly'' is a Canadian quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of cultural studies that was established in 1893 by, among others, George Munro Grant, Sanford Fleming, and John Watson, all of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. ...

'', Autumn, 1977) *"A Theory of Knowledge" *"The Thaw" (''

Viva Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia * Viva Air Dominicana * VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company * ...

'', February 1977 *"The Murder" *"Daisy" *"Exile" *"Famine Country" (''

Yale Review ''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on ...

'', Summer 1977) *"Fatal Woman" (''

The Fiddlehead ''The Fiddlehead'' is a Canadian literary magazine, published four times annually at the University of New Brunswick. It is the oldest Canadian literary magazine which is still in circulation. History and profile ''The Fiddlehead'' was establis ...

'', Summer 1977) *"Further Confessions" (''

Chicago Review ''Chicago Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and ...

'', Spring 1977) *"The Translation" ('' Triquarterly'', Fall 1977) *"The Blessing" *"The Giant Woman" (''

Kansas Quarterly ''Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies'' is an interdisciplinary humanities journal that focuses on the seven states of the Mississippi River Delta. Each issue of the journal contains fiction, nonfiction, poetic, and visual art works which o ...

'', Winter 1976) *"The Widows" (''

Hudson Review ''The Hudson Review'' is a quarterly journal of literature and the arts. History It was founded in 1947 in New York, by William Arrowsmith, Joseph Deericks Bennett, and George Frederick Morgan. The first issue was introduced in the spring of 1 ...

'', Spring 1975) *"The Dungeon" (''

Iowa Review ''The Iowa Review'' is an American literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews. History and profile Founded in 1970, ''Iowa Review'' is issued three times a year, during the months of April, August, and December. Origin ...

'', Winter 1975) *"The Sacrifice" (''

Fiction International ''Fiction International'' is a literary magazine devoted to innovative forms of fiction and non-fiction which addresses progressive political ideals. Founded at St. Lawrence University in New York City by Joe David Bellamyin 1973, the magazine mo ...

'', 1975) *"The Snow-Storm" (''

Mademoiselle Mademoiselle (abbreviated as ''Mlle'' or ''M'') may refer to: * Mademoiselle (title), the French-language equivalent of the title "miss" Film and television * ''Mademoiselle'' (1966 film), a French-British drama directed by Tony Richardson * '' ...

'', September 1974) *"The Lover" ('

Exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

', 1974) *"Bloodstains" (''

Harper’s Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'', August 1971)

Reception and Analysis

Literary critic Greg Johnson notes that these stories are designated as “tales” in the tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe: “Night-Side inhabits a realm of storytelling with its own distinct conventions. Unlike the realistic, carefully plotted short story, the tale allows the narrative freedom of brisk pacing, improbable events, and idiosyncratic characters and settings.” Literary critic John Romano, writing in '' The New York Times'', also emphasizes that Oates registers these stories as “tales,” evoking the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

works of Hawthorne and Poe, as well “lurid mass market paperbacks” found in contemporary pulp fiction. Romano praises Oates for her “handy competence” in depicting “borderline insanity” and creating “a gallery of people haunted, spooked, driven mad or victimized in general by invasions from outside the sane, rational borders of consciousness.” Romano contrasts the work in ''Night-Side'' with Oates’s earlier short fiction that deals with human suffering:

Theme

The stories are unified by interrelated themes which she names in the collection's epigraph, Walt Whitman's poem "A Clear Midnight:"

''This is thy hour O soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best'': Night, sleep, death and the stars.

In fact the stories are less concerned with everyday reality than with the "night-side" of the human mind, the area psychologists usually refer a to as " the unconscious," and its effects on a character's life.

References

Sources

* ohnson, Greg. 1994. ''Joyce Carol Oates: A Study of the Short Fiction''. Twayne’s studies in short fiction; no. 57. Oates, Joyce Carol. 1986. ''Night-Side: Eighteen Tales.'' Vanguard Press, New York. *John Romano (writer)">Romano, John. 1977. “A Way With Madness” The New York Times, October 23, 1977. https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/23/archives/a-way-with-madness-madness.html Retrieved 5 October 2023. {{Joyce Carol Oates Short story collections by Joyce Carol Oates 1977 short story collections Vanguard Press books