嬌薏絲·歐慈在二○一二年出版的小說《泥女人》一書中，探討女性自我認同與身體政治的辯證關係。書中女主角M.R.是一個被生母拋棄的孤兒
，在顛簸的命運中淬勵奮發成為一位大學校長。從寄養家庭到個人事業，她深刻體會人生不同階段的考驗。由於M.R.被陌生人救回一命，她開始致力於找尋生命的意義，而內心的錯亂與痛苦也反映在其不確定的歸屬感以及與寄養家庭緊張疏離的關係。
本論文在美國社會文化脈絡下，在墮胎議題上論證個人選擇權抑或生命權，孰輕孰重，歷經頡頏折衝，和解諒宥，馴至找到自我認同。由於受到養父母宗教理念影響與自身創傷之緣故，她如何處理校園中棘手的激進、保守政治議題，引發諸多爭論。作為一位家庭暴力的受害者，女主角是否怨恨她母親殘酷的遺棄? 然而多年後，M.R.依舊渴望見到自己生母一面，卻並未對養父母有情感寄託。在擁護選擇權上，個人抉擇能否超越宗教信仰與政治手段的控制，仍有待商榷。個體存在是社會化的過程，在此情形之下，自由意志發展的空間顯然受到各場域力量之制約與影響，透過不同角度討論個體的身分認同，有助於更深入瞭解一九八〇年代美國社會的遞嬗變遷。

Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, Mudwoman (2012), gains popular attention through the novelist’s exploration of the psychological depth and complexity of the protagonist M. R.—a foundling who was abandoned by her biological mother and who later became a university president. M.R. experiences different stages of life ranging from her foster family to her academic career. In the deep recess of her selfhood, she is obsessed with the controversial issue on women’s right and human values. M.R’s psychological complexity and predicaments reflect her identity crises-- uncertainty of belongingness and strained relations with her adopted life.
This thesis offers an in-depth analysis of the Pro-life vs. Pro-choice debates on abortion as regards socio-politic contexts in American society. Since M.R.’s stance towards this issue is tremendously influenced by her Christian foster family and she also gets involved in the intense debates on abortion on campus, what she tries to do is how to reconcile these conflicts with her own concept and come to term with herself. As a victim, does Mudwoman resent her mother’s cruelty? However, many years later M.R. is still eager to find her biological parents without showing much gratitude to her Christian foster parents. Can Pro-choice simply be regarded as a personal decision in defiance of ideological state apparatuses, such as the intervening and dominant powers of religious denominations and government control? Contextualized these quintessential questions in American society in the 1980s, the thesis would provide a better vignette on Pro-life vs. Pro-choice debates and human’s right to live, both socially and religiously.

Introduction …………………………………1

Chapter One: Self-Identity and Body Politics…………………………………20

Chapter Two: The Trauma of Domestic Violence and Adoption …………………………………34

Chapter Three: The Controversy over Pro-Life and Pro-Choice…………………………………50

Conclusion…………………………………59

Works Cited…………………………………64

Aldan, Daisy. “Rev. Invisible Woman by Joyce Carol Oates.” World Literature Today
57.4 (1983):638-39. JSTOR. Web. 28 Aug. 2018.
Altbach, Philip G. “Student Politics and Culture.” Higher Education 22.2 (1991):
117-18. JSTOR. Web. 27 Apr. 2019.
Althusser, Louis. Essays on Ideology. London: Verso, 1984. Print.
Balkun, Mary McAleer. The American Counterfeit: Authenticity and Identity in
American Literature and Culture. Tuscaloosa, AL: U of Alabama P, 2006. Print.
Bauman, Zygmunt. “From Pilgrim to Tourist- or a Short History of Identity.”
Hall and Du Gay. 18-36. Print.
Bender, Eileen Teper. Joyce Carol Oates, Artist in Residence. Indiana: Indiana UP,
1987. Print.
Bloom, Harold. Joyce Carol Oates. New York: Chelsea, 1987. Print.
Boesky, Dale. “Correspondence with Miss Joyce Carol Oates.” International Review
of Psychoanalysis 2 (1975): 481-86.
Bosman, Julie “Arts, Briefly; Criticism for Joyce Carol Oates” New York Time 11 Oct.
2006. Web. 17 Aug. 2019.
Bowles, Henry. “Psychological Realism in Early Prose Narrative: Dreams in the 1001
Nights and the Greek Novel.” Comparative Literature Studies 53.3 (2016): 427-53. JSTOR. Web.19 Jan. 2019.
Bridge, Edward J. “A Mother’s Influence: Mothers Naming Children in the Hebrew
Bible.” Vetus Testamentum 64.3 (2014): 389-400. JSTOR. Web. 26 Apr. 2019.
Bridgeman, Jo and Susan Millns. Law and Body Politics: Regulating the Female
Body. N. P.: Dartmouth, 1995. Print.
Brubaker, Rogers and Frederick Cooper. “Beyond ‘Identity.’” Theory and Society
29.1 (2000): 1-47. JSTOR. Web. Oct. 23. 2018.
Burns, Carole. “Off the Page: Joyce Carol Oates.” washingtonpost.com 9 May. 2006.
Web. 20 Aug. 2019.
Chi, Yuan-Wen. “Images of Women in Joyce Carol Oates’s Family Trilogy” American
Studies 16.1 (1986): 51-73. Print.
Creighton, Joanne V. Joyce Carol Oates: Novels of the Middle Years. New York:
Twayne, 1992. Print.
---. “Unliberated Woman in Joyce Carol Oates’s Fiction.” Wagner. 148-56. Print.
Dean, Sharon L. “Literature and Composition Theory: Joyce Carol Oates' Journal
Stories.” Rhetoric Review 10.2 (1992):311-20. JSTOR. Web. 28 Aug. 2018.
De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. New York: Knopf, 2010. Print.
De Clercq, Eva. The Seduction of the Female Body: Women’s Rights in Need of a New
Body Politics. London: Palgrave, 2013. Print.
Donald, James. “The Citizen and the Man about Town.” Hall and Du Gay. 170-90.
Print.
Driedger, Leo and Shiva S. Halli. “Pro Life or Pro Choice: Politics of Career and
Homemaking.” Population Studies 51.2 (1997): 129-37. JSTOR. Web. 10 Jun. 2019.
Duffy, Amanda Holmes. “Mudwoman: A Novel.” Rev. of Mudwoman by
Joyce Carol Oates. Washington Independent Review of Books 23 Mar. 2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2018.
Du Gay, Paul. “Organizing Identity: Entrepreneurial Governance and Public
Management.” Hall and Du Gay. 151-69. Print.
Erikson, Erik H. Identity, Youth, and Crisis. New York: Norton, 1968. Print.
Eversley, Shelly and Jennifer L. Morgan. “Introduction: The Sexual Body.” Women's
Studies Quarterly 35.1-2 (2007): 10-19. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2018.
Foucault, Michel. History of Sexuality Volume. 1. An Introduction. London: Penguin,
1990.
Foucault, Michel. History of Sexuality Volume. 2. The Use of Pleasure. New York:
Vintage, 1985. Print.
---. History of Sexuality Volume. 3. The Care of the Self. New York: Random, 1986.
Print.
Gale, Thomson. “Oates, Joyce Carol: Introduction” Feminism in Literature: A Gale
Critical Companion. Encyclopedia.com. 2005. Web. 19 Dec. 2018.
Grant, Mary Kathryn. The Tragic Vision of Joyce Carol Oates. Durham, NC: Duke
UP, 1978. Print.
---. “The Language of Tragedy and Violence.” Wagner. 61-76. 1979. Print.
Grossberg, Lawrence. “Identity and Cultural Studies: Is That All There Is?” Stuart
Hall and Du Gay. 87-107. Print.
Hagen, W. M. “Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates.” Rev. of Mudwoman by
Joyce Carol Oates. World Literature Today 87.2 (2013):141-42. JSTOR. Web. 17 Dec. 2018.
Hagestadt, Emma. “Mudwoman, By Joyce Carol Oate: A History of Violence, Seen
Through the Cracks.” Rev. of Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates. Independent 27 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2018.
Hall, Stuart and Paul Du Gay, ed. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage, 1996.
Print.
Harvard University. Cultural Studies 1983:A Theoretical History. London : Duke UP,
2016. Print.
Homans, Margaret. “Adoption Narratives, Trauma, and Origins.” Narrative 14.1
(2006): 4-26. JSTOR. Web. 17 Jan. 2019.
Hopkinson, Alfred. “Adoption.” Journal of Comparative Legislation and International
Law 2.1 (1920): 3-9. JSTOR. Web. 17 Jan. 2019.
Izevbaye, D. S. “Naming and the Character of African Fiction.” Research in African
Literatures 12.2 (1981): 162-84. JSTOR. Web. 12 May 2019.
Jacobus, Mary, Evelyn Fox Keller, and Sally Shuttleworth. Body/Politics: Women and
the Discourses of Science. New York and London: Routledge, 1990. Print.
Jahoda, Marie. “Identity: Youth and Crisis by Erik H. Erikson.” Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science (1968): 192-93. JSTOR. Web. 24. Oct. 2018.
Johnson, Greg. Understanding Joyce Carol Oates. Columbia, SC: U of
South Carolina P, 1987. Print.
Kaminer, Debra and Gillian Eagle. Traumatic Stress in South Africa. Johannesburg:
Wits UP, 2010. Print.
Kauppinen-Toropainen, Kaisa, Irja Kandolin and Pertti Mutanen. “Job Dissatisfaction
and Work-Related Exhaustion in Male and Female Work.” Journal of Occupational Behaviour 4.3 (1983): 193-207. JSTOR. Web. 27 Apr. 2019.
Keniston, Kenneth. “Psychoanalysis and Theories of Man” Rev. of “Identity: Youth
and Crisis by Erik H. Erikson; Childhood and Society (1950)” by Erikson. Science 161.3838 (1968): 257-58. JSTOR. Web. 12 May 2019.
Kirk, Robert. The Conceptual Link from Physical to Mental. Oxford: MPG Books
Group, 2013. Print.
Lewis Center Princeton Arts. “Lecturer with the Rank of Professor; Roger S.
Berlind’52 Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus; Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus” https://arts.princeton.edu/people/profiles/jcsmith/ Web. 20 Aug. 2019
Lock, Margaret and Patricia A. Kaufert. Pragmatic Women and Body Politics.
New York: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.
Malizzo, Lee, ed. Conversation with Joyce Carol Oates. Ridgewood: UP of
Mississippi, 1989. Print.
Marquette, Caroline, Tanya Tromble-Giraud, and Eric Karl Anderson. Joyce Carol
Oates. Paris: Éditions de L'Herne, 2017. Print.
Mastekaasa, Arne and Jens-Christian Smeby. “Educational Choice and Persistence in
Male- and Female-Dominated Fields.” Higher Education 55.2 (2008):189-202.
JSTOR. Web. 27 Apr. 2019.
McWhorter, Ladelle. Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual
Normalization. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1999. Print.
Nance, Kevin. “Books: ‘Mudwoman’ by Joyce Carol Oates.” Rev. of Mudwoman by
Joyce Carol Oates. Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2012. Web. 22 Dec. 2018.
Nelson, Hilde Lindemann. Feminism and Families. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Print.
Novak, Maximillian. E. “Friday: or, the Power of Naming.” Augustan Subjects: Essays in Honor of Martin C. Battestin. Ed. Albert J. Rivero. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1997. Print.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates. Jackson, MS: UP of
Mississippi, 1989. Print.
---. Mudwoman. New York: Ontario Review, 2012. Print.
Ramadanovic, Petar. Forgetting Futures: On Memory, Trauma, and Identity.
Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2001. Print.
Rhodes, Lewis A. “Religion and Opposition to Abortion Reconsidered.” Review of
Religious Research 27.2 (1985): 158-68. Web. 10 Jun. 2019.
Rose, Nikolas. “Identity, Genealogy, History.” Hall and Du Gay. 128-50.
Print.
Russomarch, Maria “The Ground Beneath Her Feet ‘Mudwoman’ by Joyce Carol
Oates.” Rev. of Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates. New York Time
Book Review 30 Mar. 2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2018.
Sabala and Meena Gopal. “Body, Gender and Sexuality: Politics of Being and
Belonging.” Economic and Political Weekly 45.17 (2010): 43-51. JSTOR. Web. 14 Nov. 2018.
Scheeres, Julia. “When They Graduated From Rape to Murder, Their Sister Turned
Them In” Rev. of My Life as a Rat by Joyce Carol Oates. 4 Jun. 2019. New York Time 4 Jun. 2019. Web.17 Aug. 2019.
Singh, Sushila. “Joyce Carol Oates: The Woman Question in Her Exploration of the
Contemporary Human Condition.” Panjab University Research Bulletin 19.2 (1988):11-19. JSTOR. Web. 17 Dec. 2018.
Sjöberg, Leif and Joyce Carol Oates. “An Interview with Joyce Carol Oates.”
Conteporary Literature 23.3 (1982): 267-84. JSTOR. Web. 28 Aug. 2018.
Slattery, Mary Francis. “What Is Literary Realism?” Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism 31.1 (1972): 55-62. JSTOR. Web. 9 Sep. 2019.
Smiley, Pamela. “Incest, Roman Catholicism, and Joyce Carol Oates.” College
Literature 18.1 (1991):38-49. JSTOR. Web. 28 Aug. 2018.
Sobopha, Mgcineni Pro. “The Body: Gender and the Politics of Representation.”
Empowering Women for Gender Equity 63.2 (2005): 117-30. JSTOR. Web. 8 Nov. 2018.
Stets, Jan E. and Peter J. Burke. “Gender, Control, and Interaction.” Social
Psychology Quarterly 59.3 (1996): 193-220. JSTOR. Web. 27 Jun. 2019.
Tromble, Tanya. “Joyce Carol Oates: Fantastic, New Gothic and Inner Realities.”
Journal of the Short Story in English. Presses universitaires d'Angers, CD-ROM. 1-12. 2014.
Wagner, Linda W. Critical Essays on Joyce Carol Oates. Bosto: Hall, 1979.
Print.
Waller, G. F. Dreaming America: Obsession and Transcendence in the Fiction of
Joyce Carol Oates. Miami, FL: Thomson-Shore, 1979. Print.
Watt, Ian. The Rise of the Novel. Oakland: Penguin, 1957. Print.
Wicke, Jennifer. “Postmodern Identities and the Politics of the (Legal) Subject.”
Feminism and Postmodernism 19.2 (1992): 10-33. JSTOR. Web. 5 Nov. 2018.
William, John. “Joyce Carol Oates Wants to Clear Things Up About ‘Mudwoman.’”
New York Times 8 Jun. 2012. Web. 17 Dec. 2018.
Yamagata, Hisashi, Kuang S. Yeh, Shelby Stewman and Hiroko Dodge. “Sex
Segregation and Glass Ceilings: A Comparative Statics Model of Women’s Career
Opportunities in the Federal Government over a Quarter Century.” American Journal of Sociology 103.3 (1997): 566-632. JSTOR. Web. 12 Jan. 2019.
Yerkes, Andrew C.. “Twenty-Century Americanism.” Identity and Ideology in
Depression-Era Leftist Fiction. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Zetterbaum, Marvin. “Human Nature and History.” Nomos 17 (1977): 225-49.
JSTOR. Web. 1 Jul. 2020.