6 Letters from Alice Munro, ‘the Master of the Epistolary Short Story

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-157
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Alice Munro

An Office of Her Own? Alice Munro and the Legacy of Writing with In-Authority

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Mendez
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
Women's Writing ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
Rhetorical Strategy ◽  
Shared Interest ◽  
Room Of One's Own ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Women’S Writing

In Alice Munro’s short story “The Office,” the protagonist claims an office of her own in which to write. Munro’s narrative can thus be read as engaging with the ideas on the spatial conditions for women’s writing which Virginia Woolf famously explored in A Room of One’s Own. My paper takes this thematic connection as a point of departure for suggesting that a Woolfian legacy shapes Munro’s “The Office” in ways which go beyond a shared interest in spaces for women’s writing. Both A Room of One’s Own and “The Office,” this paper argues, use the discussion of women’s writing spaces as a launching pad for exploring in how far women writers may claim for themselves traditionally masculine positions of authorship and authority, and in what ways authoritative forms of literary discourse may be transformed by women’s writing. In both A Room of One’s Own and “The Office,” the interruption as element of plot and rhetorical strategy plays a central role in answering these questions.

scholarly journals Autobiography in the Anthropocene. A Geological Reading of Alice Munro

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. BE75-BE92
Author(s):  
Marlene Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Human Dimensions ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Geological Features ◽  
Autobiographical Fiction ◽  
Prize Award

In the autobiographical stories of Nobel Prize award-winning author Alice Munro, questions of ontology and mortality are inextricably connected to matters of space and place. Fundamental existential dilemmas expressed in Munro’s corpus – signaled by the title of her second short story collection Who Do You Think You Are? – are linked to basic questions concerning orientation. Although autobiographical fiction frequently interweaves concerns about identity and deceased parents with recollections of ancestral spaces, as the literary critic Northrop Frye famously stated, the question ‘Where is here?’ is characteristic of the Canadian imagination. It is now also fundamental to the epoch of the Anthropocene. Although critics frequently praise Munro for her skill in presenting haunting, epiphanic moments, she is less often credited for her far less conventional tendency to tell stories covering years, even decades. My paper explores Munro’s preoccupation with these vast temporal arcs and their impact on her recursive autobiographical fiction. I argue that Munro’s penchant for ‘return and revision’ in her non-fictional works affords an opportunity for her protagonists and, by extension, her readers to revisit and ponder ancestral connections and the non-human dimensions of existence, which include sublime geological features and deep time.

scholarly journals Espantosa Graça: a inquietude do 'eu' em "Paixão", de Alice Munro

2018 ◽  
pp. 91-106
Author(s):  
Thais Fernandes Campos ◽  
Gracia Regina Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Gender Studies ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Critical View ◽  
Gender Patterns ◽  
Complex Characters ◽  
Social Insertion

RESUMO: Alice Munro, escritora canadense e vencedora do Prêmio Nobel de Literatura de 2013, é reconhecida por sua relevante contribuição dentro dos estudos de gênero. A ficção de Munro tem proporcionado aos leitores interessantes e complexas personagens, em especial no que tange ao papel da mulher face ao seu amadurecimento e sua inserção social. Neste estudo, pretendo desenvolver uma leitura do conto “Paixão” (ano 2004) de Munro tendo em vista a visão crítica da autora, a qual desafia pressupostos ligados a padrões tradicionais e presentes tanto na construção do feminino, quanto do masculino. Para o desenvolvimento desse estudo conto com o apoio das reflexões de Elisabeth Badinter e Chris Weedom. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Conto, Gênero, Padrões, Alice Munro. _____________________________ ABSTRACT: Alice Munro, a Canadian writer and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature, is recognized for her relevant contribution to gender studies. Munro's fiction has provided readers with interesting and complex characters, especially in reference of the role of women in face of their growing and social insertion. In this study, I intend to develop a reading of the story "Paixão" (year 2004) by Munro in relation to the author's critical view expressed through  male and female representations , which challenge assumptions linked to traditional gender patterns.  For the development of this study I count on with the support of the reflections of Elisabeth Badinter and Chris Weedom. KEYWORDS: Short-story, Genre, Standards, Alice Munro.  

scholarly journals Unravelling the mystery of reality : typical Canadian elements in the short stories of Alice Munro

1998 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 105-114
Author(s):  
Aleksander Kustec
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Anne Hebert ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
Margaret Laurence ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Social Events ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Mavis Gallant ◽  
Canadian Provinces ◽  
Diversity Of Life

The contemporary Canadian short story has a specific place among literary genres in Canadian literature. It culminated in the sixties of this century, when the Canadians looked to their literature with greater interest. Canadian short story writers started to write in a different tone, and showed special interest for new themes. After 1960 authors, such as Henry Kreisel, Norman Levine, Anne Hebert, Mavis Gallant, Ethel Wilson, Joyce Marshall, Hugh Hood, Hugh Garner, Margaret Laurence, Audrey Callahan Thomas, Mordecai Richler, and Alice Munro, refused to use the traditional plot, and showed more interest for characterisation. By using a typical Canadian setting, their stories began to reflect social events of their time. A new awareness of identity stepped forward, and above all their stories became a reflection of the diversity of life in all Canadian provinces. The contemporary Canadian short story writers began to overstep the boundaries of their imagination.

Epilogue

More Time ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 188-192
Author(s):  
Lee Clark Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
Middle Period

This brief summary reviews the argument for various late styles, none of which exactly fits a pattern. Each among the quartet of short story writers whose work has been assessed in this book (Alice Munro, Andre Dubus, Joy Williams, and Lydia Davis) differs dramatically from an earlier self as well as from the others. And in closing the book with a discussion of Robert Coover’s minimalist “A Sudden Story”—a piece written in what could be termed Coover’s middle period—we realize how even the very shortest of stories has the capacity to summarize an entire centuries-long tradition.

scholarly journals Epiphany of a Middle-Aged Woman: An Analysis of Alice Munro’s “Nettles” from the Perspective of an Initiation Story

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Xiaohui Xue
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
Aged Woman ◽  
Middle Aged Woman

<p>“Nettles” is a short story by the famous contemporary Canadian female writer Alice Munro. It is a multi-thematic story since many scholars have done research on its themes from such angles as love and marriage, the perplexity about life and feminism, etc. Nevertheless, few critics have studied it as an initiation story. Thus, by employing textual analysis as the research approach, this article studies “Nettles” from the perspective of an initiation story in terms of its content, characters and structure. Finally, the research draws the conclusion that “Nettles” is a typical initiation story about a middle-aged woman, depicting how she turns from a spiritually immature woman into a mature one.</p>

Jan Chapman is part of a generation of Australian lmmakers and producers who emerged in the wake of what became known as the Australian New Wave of the 1970s. At Sydney University (where she studied English literature), she was part of the Sydney Filmmakers Co-Op. She met the lmmakers Gillian Armstrong and Phillip Noyce (later her husband), and gained practical experience of exhibition and distribution, as well as directing her own short lms. Chapman subsequently spent over a decade at ABC TV, directing and producing. During this period, she rst encountered Jane Campion, whose TV drama Two Friends (1987)—scripted by Helen Garner—she produced. Her rst feature lm as producer was The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992), directed by Gillian Armstrong and also scripted by Garner. By then, she and Campion were already planning The Piano (1993), which was eight years in gestation. Although she didn’t produce Campion’s debut feature Sweetie (1989), or her lms An Angel at My Table (1990) and The Portrait of a Lady (1996), she was a script consultant on the last two lms. After The Piano won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, Chapman was given a development deal with Miramax. However, she preferred to nurture her own projects in Australia. Through Campion, she was put in touch with Shirley Barrett, whose Camera d’Or-winning Love Serenade (1996) she produced. With Campion, she went on to produce Holy Smoke (1999) and Bright Star (2009). Her other credits include Barrett’s Walk the Talk (2000) and Ray Lawrence’s Lantana (2001). She has also served as an executive producer on lms by talented young Australian directors, among them Cate Shortland’s Somersault (2004), Paul Goldman’s Suburban Mayhem (2006), and Leon Ford’s Griff The Invisible (2010). She is currently in the early stages of development on a new feature with Campion called Runaway, based on an Alice Munro short story.

2013 ◽  
pp. 33-35
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Bright Star ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady ◽  
Jane Campion ◽  
New Feature ◽  
Phillip Noyce

‘“Gender, genre and nationality”’: Alice Munro’s forging of her short story way

1970 ◽  
Vol 32 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 119-137
Author(s):  
Isla Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Alice Munro ◽  
Narrative Art ◽  
Contemporary Writers ◽  
The 1950S

In the first part of this article, I argue that Alice Munro, in her early career, was disadvantaged by her gender, by her Canadianness, and by her commitment to short fiction. She has overcome most of the obstacles and prejudices she faced in the 1950s and 1960s, and is regarded as one of the world’s finest contemporary writers. In the latter part of my article, I discuss the distinctive qualities of her narrative art, maintaining that they have become Munrovian hallmarks and are enhanced in her chosen form, the short story.

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