Tales of Heart: Askesis in Joyce Carol Oates

The word ‘text’ has acquired a diverse meaning over the period of time. Though the postmodern texts debunk certain conventions, they cannot be separated from what T. S. Eliot proclaimed it as the ‘literary tradition.’ Harold Bloom’s postulation of the revisionary ratios is concerned with the movement of writers towards or away from the influence of great/prominent writers, and it might be seen as an annex to the formulations of Eliot. Considering these standpoints, this article (i) focuses on how askesis, one of the revisionary ratios of Bloom, has become a useful entry point into exploring the influence of Edgar Allan Poe on Joyce Carol Oates (ii) Substantiates how Oates wrestles with her strong precursor to ascertain her aesthetic expression (iii) Establishes how askesis allows readers to examine and fill in the indeterminate blanks in the text, and simultaneously, (iv) determines how askesis subscribes to/supplements the formulation of intertextuality as a literary theory.