A Research Of Women’s Body Threshold In Alice Munro’s Works

Lives of Girls and women is a short story collection by Alice Munro,which is also the first “novel” that Munro has attempted to write.There are eight stories in this collection,including The Flats Road,Heirs of the Living Bodies,Princess Ida,Age of Faith,Changes and Ceremonies,Lives of Girls and Women,Baptising and Epilogue: the photographer,telling the story of Dell Jordan,who became a writer in the end,from her childhood to her adulthood.Currently,many scholars have studied the collection from the perspective of feminism and narratology,slightly laying emphasis to the potential space in the work.Threshold is a dynamic space which possesses the characteristics of transition,ambiguity and possibility.Body threshold is to view body as an interface between the self and the material world,a dynamic space containing concrete and abstract materials.According to the characteristics of threshold,this thesis aims to analyse the manifestation of Del’s body threshold in different life stages.The transition of cognition and affect is showcased during Del’s childhood.The ambiguity of cognition and identity is reflected during Del’s puberty.The possibility of cognition and identity is indicated during Del’s adulthood.Del’s body is an interface between the self and the material world,allowing her to perceive the external world through her body senses(visual,auditory,tactile and kinesthetic senses).Moreover,due to the vitality and ambiguity of human body,Del’s cognition,affect and identity are constantly changing,thereby replete with possibility.The manifestation of Del’s body threshold implies Munro’s perspectives on women’s body,which embodies Munro’s aesthetic value and philosophical thinking.Munro reckons that the external physical environment will influence women’s cognition on the external world,and their interpersonal relationship will influence their self-cognition and affects towards other people.Women perceive the world through their senses(mainly visual,auditory,tactile and kinesthetic senses)as well as affective and cognitive conflicts.As women go through their inner body change(getting older)and outer body change(being touched,caressed or even beaten up),so do their identity,affect and cognition.