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I consider tragedy the highest form of art.
Joyce Carol Oates
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Tragedy reflects the deepest human experiences and emotions, making it a profound artistic expression.

Joyce Carol Oates suggests that tragedy, despite its pain and suffering, captures the complexities of human existence more poignantly than any other art form. This perspective elevates tragic narratives to a critical role in understanding and exploring the human condition, asserting that through tragedy, artists convey truths that resonate with our shared experiences of grief, loss, and endurance.

Themes

TragedyArtHuman ExperienceEmotionExpression

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about the importance of storytelling in literature.

More from Joyce Carol Oates

Of the widow's countless death-duties there is really just one that matters: on the first anniversary of her husband's death the widow should think I kept myself alive.
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I never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties.
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I'm drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life.
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My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
. . . there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.
Joyce Carol OatesRead

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