| Alice Munro (1931--) is the most critically acclaimed author of contemporaryCanadian Literature. In2005, she was listed by Time magazine among “the100MostInfluential People.” In2009, she was declared as the winner of2009Man BookerInternational Prize. She has won virtually every prize available to a Canadian shortstory writer, including three times Governor-General’s Awards, two times GillerPrizes, two times Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the American National Book CriticsCircle Award, and CBA(Canadian Booksellers Association) Libris Award. She hasaltogether published fourteen short story collections, and is lauded for herconcentration on regional histories, for the unique “Canadianness” depicted in herwriting. Since1980s the research on Alice Munro continues to gain momentum, butthe scholarship mainly falls into two categories:1) feminist themes and2) narrativetechniques. The new millennium witnesses arising number of critics noting theimportant cultural connections between Munro’s personal identity (as Canadian writer,woman writer and short story writer) and Canada’s national identity (as post-colonialcountry and post-modernist country). However, so far there is no systematic study onCanadianness in Munro’s writing.The dissertation aims to explore Munro’s Canadianness and its literaryexpression in her short stories. Munro’s success is intertwined with the awakening ofCanadianness, and her literary achievement in turn contributes to the entry ofCanadian literature into the canon of world literature. The dissertation suggests“in-betweenness” as the embodiment of Canadianness. It argues that Canada’s“in-betweenness” is an ex-centric cultural tendency resulted from the country’sgeographical wildness as well as cultural and economical subordination. Thattendency is reflected in the national consciousness as a sense of marginality, which isalso closely associated with the country’s “garrison mentality” and “survivalcomplex.” The “in-betweenness” not only leads to an anxiety about the country’sself-identification as powerless victim, but also suggests a post-colonial stance towards the identity crisis, which explains the country’s consistent preoccupation onnationalism and identity. Its post-colonial experience suggests affinities with thefeminist experience. The cultural “in-betweenness” of the country also causes arelativist “total ambiguity” in Canadian ethics. The dissertation holds that Canada hasthe inborn hybridity as “bilingual, multi-ethnic, and regional unbalanced” country, butCanada is, nevertheless, unified by a common appeal for “cultural security,” whichpresents the Canadian a distinctive cultural compromise as embodied in“Canadianness,” in the “in-betweenness.”Based on the concept of “in-betweenness,” the dissertation focuses on nine shortstories taken from three Munro’s collections: Dance of the Happy Shades, Who DoYou Think You Are?/The Beggar Maid, and The Love of a Good Woman, to reveal thehidden cultural signifiers in the text. It examines the Munro’s philosophical thinkingand artistic imagination on three dimensions of Canadianness (Canadianconsciousness, Canadian experience, and Canadian ethics), and probes into thekeywords that are prevalent in the study of Canadianness, such as “postcolonial” and“female.”The dissertation consists of five parts. For the “Introduction,” the first sectionstarts with an overview of the discussion of Canadianness in the history of Canadianliterary criticism, and pays particular attention to the thematic tradition existing inCanadian criticism from Frye, Atwood, to Hutcheon. It studies the culturalimplications and theoretical context of the topic and tries to provide a workingdefinition for Canadianness: in-betweenness. The second section gives a briefintroduction of Munro’s standing in contemporary Canadian literature, and goes on toexplore the relationship between Munro’s success with the rising of Canadianliterature. It examines Munro’s sense of “in-between” from three aspects of nationality,class, and gender, and argues that Munro’s artistic taste is deeply influenced by her“Canadianness.” This section ends with a review of the scholarship abroad and athome on Alice Munro. The third section introduces the scope, theoretical framework,and organization of the dissertation. The dissertation holds two important theoreticalhypothesis:1) Canada is a post-colonial country.2) Compared to the United States, Great Britain, and France which show masculine characteristics in InternationalRelationships, Canada is womanly or feminine country.Chapter One focuses on the sense of marginality in Canadian consciousness byexamining three short stories in Dance of the Happy Shades. It argues that the senseof marginality results from the country’s cultural “in-betweenness,” and is eventuallyreflected in the Canadian literary tradition of “small-town fiction.” In “WalkerBrothers Cowboy,” it argues that Canada suffers an awkward psychologicalsubordination of “in-betweenness,” because its colonial history results in mutualsuspicion between Protestants and Catholics, as well as alienation between theProtestant denominations, which together put the country in a very vulnerable positionto resist the United States’ cultural imperialism. In “The Peace of Utrecht,” it resortsto the gothic tradition in Canadian literature and argues that the Canadian gothicembodies a national shame and guilt towards the country’s post-colonial history,which is also the extension of its sense of marginality. The gothic discourse providesCanada an outlet for the collective “orphan” trauma as a post-colonial country. In“Dance of the Happy Shades,” it introduces Gramsci’s concept of “subaltern” to thediscussion of Canada’s post-colonial psychology. It argues that the country holds anational sympathy on those in the marginal positions, and suggests that Munro, byresorting to a religious image of the “Holy Fool,” expresses her philosophicalimagination on the power of the border man.Chapter Two examines the female quest for identity in Canadian experience byexamining three short stories in Who Do You Think You Are?/The Beggar Maid. Itargues that Canada’s postcolonial experience shares a same quest for identity with thefeminist experience of combating the patriarchal power. In “Half a Grapefruit,” itpoints out that the first clash between self-pursuit and communal expectation that isexperienced by a little girl contains all of the classic ingredients of the Canadianfemale Bildungsroman. It further argues that the heroine’s endeavor of changing fromthe feminine “speaking” tradition to the masculine “reading” practice embodies thecountry’s quest for identity and power. In “The Beggar Maid,” it borrows Hoggart’sconcept of “scholarship boy” to help analyze the heroine’s “scholarship girl” identity, and further compares it with the traditional “beggar maid” identity. It points out thatgiven the historical reality of Canadian society, it is difficult for the female totranscend the economic and cultural limitations in their search for identity, and thuscompromises are inevitable in Canadian experience. In “Who Do You Think YouAre?,” it examines the heroine’s artistic growth from “imitation” to “acting” from theperspective of female Kunstlerroman. It argues that esthetic experience would helpCanada achieve the authority of an author, as the artistic creation will help expand thepersonal experience and transcend reality. It also highlights that the reconstruction ofthe regional mythology is significant for Canada to establish its “subjectivity.”Chapter Three discusses the total ambiguity in Canadian ethics by examiningthree short stories of The Love of a Good Woman. It argues that Canada’sin-betweenness gives rise to a moral anxiety as embodied in the “total ambiguity,”which also reflects a national suspicion towards the so-called “universals” based on“male supremacy.” In “The Love of a Good Woman,” it suggests that Canada’s ethicalunderstanding of righteousness is very different from the American one. TheCanadian ethical judgment for righteousness is a multi-dimensional one, and veryoften influenced by the country’s religious piety and plurality, emphasizing ambiguityand compromise. In “The Children Stay,” it argues that Canada’s cultural pluralismhas promoted an ethical relativism in its people, and that Canada’s ethical relativism isin nature compatible with the feminine ambiguity, multiplicity and openness, whichhelps Canada to resist the masculine ethical absolutism as represented by the “heavy”and “overwhelming” American culture. In “My Mother’s Dream,” it examines theholistic perspective of Canadian ethics by comparing the country’s ethical endeavorwith the female struggle for a harmonious combination of the masculinity andfemininity, of the professional ambition and maternal responsibility. It argues that byhighlighting the balance, encouraging dialogue and cooperation the Canadian ethicsstrives to achieve an ethical “wholeness” in its pursuit for power and morality.The dissertation concludes that Munro’s aesthetic taste is influenced by hercultural identity as a Canadian short story woman writer, and her stories are theartistic representation of Canadianness, which can be succinctly summarized as “in-betweenness.” It is the very “in-betweenness” that leads to the sense ofmarginality in the dimension of Canadian consciousness, gives rise to the femalequest for identity in the dimension of Canadian experience, and brings about the totalambiguity in the dimension of Canadian ethics. |
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