The title refers to the Phrygian cult goddess Cybele, known in ancient Rome as Magna Mater, or "Great Mother".[2]
Plot
“Great mother of the Roman Empire” - Oates called her "the devouring female".
"Magna Mater" is presented as a third-person omniscient narrative.
Nora Drexler née Akenside, is a university professor at Radcliffe College. Though divorced for years, the 45-year-old Nora is still haunted by the injustice she feels at the disregard she has experienced from her now dying father, as well as her ex-husband. Nora is desperate to conceal her emotional vulnerability even to her counselor, Dr. Gruber, who was a fellow student at her university. She is ashamed that her husband, Theodore, has left her for a "newer…model", marrying a woman, 24-years-of-age. Nora regrets that she married a man “not quite her intellectual equal.” She further laments that her highly regarded literary works were published under her married name rather than her maiden name.[4]
Denny is her troubled son, age eleven. His I. Q. ranks in the “upper one-percentile.”[5] Dennis appears callous towards his dying grandfather, and mocks his mother's guilt.[6] He demands that be allowed to visit his grandfather in the hospital. Nora forbids it, concerned he will misbehave or “act strange.”[7] The obese boy is alternately needy and disparaging of his mother.
Nora is surprised by what appears to be a friendly visit by Mason Colebrook, a fellow professor of literature and his wife Sarah. Colebrook is mildly intoxicated. Chatting in her garden, Nora discovers she is the object of a scathing satire in verse. The author, Benjamin Edwards, once one of her students, has titled his poem “How Leda Got the Swan.” Nora is instantly alarmed at the prospect of being humiliated, but conceals her panic. The content of the satire is not revealed. Colbrooke is secretly amused and delighted to inform her that she is now the target of a scurrilous retribution. He subtly reminds Nora that she'd sabotaged Edwards's career with crushing appraisals of his work. Nora reflects that Colbrooke may have disparaged her among their associates, but dismisses her suspicion.
When Colbrook asks Nora about her recent writings, she eagerly offers a defense of her work, attacking its critics. She launches into a diatribe against the decline of literacy in universities: "Unless we’re courageous and fight these issues at once, we’ll be teaching Pawnee bear songs before we know it."[8]
Colbrook's contempt for Nora is now barely concealed, hidden by a veneer of mirth. Suddenly he begins to denounce Nora, making the bizarre claim that there is dust on the peanuts she has served him. Sarah is alarmed, and tries to apologize for her husband. Bewildered, Nora makes self-deprecating remarks about her social isolation. Colbrook, scooping up a handful of dirt, casts it in her face, and strides out of the garden.
Sarah follows him to the car, apologizing to Nora. When she nears Colebrook, he tells Sarah to stop placating their host: "Nora’s the same ugly old selfish sadistic bitch she’s always been…"[9][10] The couple drive away.
Trembling with rage and humiliation, she comforts her son Dennis who has witnessed the incident. Nora promises not to abandon him.[11]
Reception
Writing in the New York Times, novelist and literary critic Marian Engel, reviewing the collection The Goddess and Other Women writes approvingly: "‘Magna Mater’ is my favorite, but there is no need to choose among them."[12]
Theme
The three male figures closest to Nora - her father, her husband, and her son - simultaneously demand her attention and resent her professional successes.[13] Her university colleague’s insults are particularly threatening to her "feminine ego", after her husband deserts her for a much younger woman.[14]
To the extent that Nora is a "sadistic bitch", the appraisal is appropriately applied only to her selective critical analysis. Styling herself a reluctant but duty-bound champion of “academic excellence,” Nora issues "blunt" and "devastating reviews" which amount to character assassinations of her male colleagues.[15]
Biographer Joanne V. Creighton writes that, despite Nora's self-deceptions, these scathing reviews are expressions of a submerged but decided misandry:
She takes delight akin to the sadistic in destroying their opponent and in the process affirming her own superiority as a brilliant thinker…Intellectually if not sexually she has the upper hand, and it wields the castrating knife.[16]
Creighton praises Oates for delivering a "balanced" portrait of Nora, but one that does not provide for her liberation as a woman: "Emotionally insecure, she is too entangled in unsatisfactory relationships with men and too vulnerable to their demands and taunts, praise and criticism, attention and inattention."[17]
Footnotes
↑ Johnson, 1994 p. 218-222: Selected Bibliography, Primary Works
↑ Johnso, 1994 p. 57: "the Anatolian goddess of Cybele imported and renamed by that most patriarchal of empires, the Roman - who stood as the beneficent maternal figurehead of a rapacious, imperialist culture".
↑ Johnson, 1994 p. 57: "the Anatolian goddess of Cybele imported and renamed by that most patriarchal of empires, the Ronan - who stood as the beneficent maternal figurehead of a rapacious, imperialist culture".
Johnson, Greg. 1994. Joyce Carol Oates: A Study of the Short Fiction. Twayne's studies in short fiction; no. 57. Twayne Publishers, New York. ISBN0-8057-0857-X
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a frequently anthologized short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story first appeared in the Fall 1966 edition of Epoch magazine. It was inspired by three Tucson, Arizona, murders committed by Charles Schmid, which were profiled in Life magazine in an article written by Don Moser on March 4, 1966. Oates said that she dedicated the story to Bob Dylan because she was inspired to write it after listening to his song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". The story was originally named "Death and the Maiden".
The Wheel of Love is contains 20 works of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates published by Vanguard Press in 1970. The volume brought Oates "abundant national acclaim" including this assessment from librarian and critic John Alfred Avant: "Quite simply, one of the finest collections of short stories ever written by an American."
Upon the Sweeping Flood and Other Stories is a collection of short stories written by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 1966 by Vanguard Press.
The Goddess and Other Women is a collection comprising 25 works of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates and published by Vanguard Press in 1974.
The Poisoned Kiss and Other Stories from the Portuguese is a collection of short stories written by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 1975 by Vanguard Press.
"The Metamorphosis" is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in The New American Review, and first collected in Marriages and Infidelities (1972) by Vanguard Press.
"Small Avalanches" is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Cosmopolitan and first collected in The Goddess and Other Women (1974) by Vanguard Press.
“The Goddess” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Antaeus and first collected in The Goddess and Other Women (1974) by Vanguard Press.
“In the Warehouse” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in The Transatlantic Review and first collected in The Goddess and Other Women (1974) by Vanguard Press.
"The Lady with the Pet Dog" is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in The Partisan Review and first collected in Marriages and Infidelities (1972) by Vanguard Press.
“The Dead” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in McCall’s, and first collected in Marriages and Infidelities (1972) by Vanguard Press. McCall’s re-titled the story “The Death of Dreams” in its periodical, but its original title of “The Dead” was restored in the collection at Oates’s requested.
“Where I Lived and What I Lived For” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Virginia Quarterly Review and first collected in Marriages and Infidelities (1974) by Vanguard Press.
“The Girl” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Pomegranate Press (1974) and first collected in The Goddess and Other Women (1974) by Vanguard Press.
"The Voyage to Rosewood" is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Shenandoah and first collected in The Goddess and Other Women (1974) by Vanguard Press.
“Blindfold” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Southern Review and first collected in The Goddess and Other Women (1974) by Vanguard Press.
“In the Region of Ice” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in The Atlantic, August 1966, and first collected in The Wheel of Love (1970), by Vanguard Press.
“I Was in Love” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Shenandoah, and first collected in The Wheel of Love (1970) by Vanguard Press.
“Unmailed, Unwritten Letters” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in The Hudson Review, and first collected in The Wheel of Love (1970) by Vanguard Press.
“Accomplished Desires” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Esquire and first collected in The Wheel of Love (1970) by Vanguard Press.
“How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again” is a work of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in Triquarterly and first collected in The Wheel of Love (1970) by Vanguard Press.
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