Joyce Carol Oates on Boxing as Intimate Art

In a 2013 essay for artpress, Alexandre Mare reviews Joyce Carol Oates's writings on boxing, particularly her book "De la boxe" (Tristram). Oates, a woman writing about a male-dominated sport, explores boxing as an intimate, physical experience that parallels pornography in its voyeuristic yet deeply human engagement. She argues boxing is a concentrated form of life, where rage is transposed into art. The essay highlights Oates's portraits of heavyweight champions like Mike Tyson, whom she met, and Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion in 1908. It also references poet-boxer Arthur Cravan, nephew of Oscar Wilde, who told André Gide he preferred boxing to literature. Oates's perspective offers a unique, interior view of the sport, emphasizing its contradictions: precise yet violent, a fight against oneself. The piece positions Oates's work among great boxing literature by Norman Mailer and Pierre Bourgeade.