A Study Of Feminine Writing In Alice Munro’s Works

Alice Munro(1931—) is the first Canadian writer to win Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. As one of the most prestigious short story writers in the world, she focuses on particular life experience of females, love experience, growing-up and their connection with the outside world. Her personal experience and meticulous observation of female experience arouse her interest in the issue of female life. This thesis is going to interpret Alice Munro’s works from the perspective of Helene Cixous’ s theory of feminine writing, and focus on the narrative strategies, narrative themes and narrative significance of feminine writing presented in Alice Munro’s works.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter one is introduction. It introduces Alice Munro’s personal experience and writing career. Then it talks about her selected works, including Munro’s writing background, masterpieces, and her writing style.Then it illustrates the research objectives and significance of this thesis.Chapter two is literature review. This part includes international studies and domestic studies, which summarize the main research perspectives on Alice Munro’s works in recent years. Then, it points out that this thesis aims at studying Munro’s works from the perspective of feminine writing.Chapter three demonstrates the theoretical framework of this thesis. In the first part, it introduces Helene Cixous and her main academic achievements. The second part discusses the connotations of Cixous’ s theory of feminine writing. It analyzes the creating background, objectives, main arguments and the significance of feminine writing.Chapter four is the main body. It analyzes Lives of Girls and Women, Boys and Girls, The Love of a Good Woman and Dimensions from the perspectives of narrative strategies, narrative themes and narrative significance. In her theory, Cixous encourages females to “write your self”(Cixous: 1976: 881). Part one discusses that Munro applies the personalized narrative strategy in Lives of Girls and Women,which autobiographically reflects Munro’s own life experience; besides, taking TheLove of a Good Woman as the research subject, it is argued that Munro employs diversified narrative strategies in her works, such as irony, flashback and foreshadowing. Different from male writing’s linear narration, Munro’s works shift easily from time and space. In her article Sorties(1975), Cixous points out female inferior status in gender opposition. Adopting this theory, part two analyzes two kinds of survival predicaments faced by females in Munro’s works: family ethics and social ethics. In Dimensions, Lloyd controls his wife Dorre physically and mentally, and Dorre fails to get out of the predicament. It discusses that the protagonist in Boys and Girls suffers anti-growth due to the impact of social prejudice, while Del in Lives of Girls and Women gets out of the predicament when faced with the similar situation.With respect to female predicaments, Cixous proposes two effective ways for female to realize self-redemption—“body writing” and “writing practice”. Part three discusses Del’s experience of getting out of the predicament and realizing self-redemption through “body writing” and “writing practice”. In Lives of Girls and Women, Munro portrays four males who have great influence on Del’s awakening of female body; at the end of this novel, Del realizes that she cannot gain growth only through “body writing”. Finally, she chooses to be a writer and starts her “real life”.Chapter five is conclusion. Firstly, the thesis concludes that Munro’s works have obvious features of feminine writing in narrative strategies, narrative themes and narrative significance. At the same time, it argues that feminine writing in Munro’s works is a special discourse pattern which is different from that of male writing. It is a writing strategy for females to fight for independence and freedom. At the very last,it briefly states some limitations.