Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most provocative and prolific American writers of the post-World War II era. Her impressive body of work, which consists of twenty three novels, fifteen short story collections, ten volumes of poetry, four plays, and literally hundreds of reviews, scholarly articles, essays, and journalistic pieces, is notable for much more than its sheer bulk. The range, depth and variety of her work, and especially its individuality, have earned her an exalted place in American letters. In this study, Joanne V. Creighton offers the first critical study focused on the middle period of Oates's career. A companion to Creighton's earlier Twayne study, Joyce Carol Oats (1979), this volume picks up where the previous one left off, considering the fifteen novels written between 1977 and 1990. Included in Creighton's analysis are Oates's pseudonymous mystery novels, published under the name Rosamond Smith. The author has benefited from Oates's own response to a first draft of this study, and has ably interpreted the complexities of Oates's work. Creighton's insightful analysis will appeal to all scholars and students of contemporary American literature.