A Study On The Ethical Identity And Ethical Choice Of Females In Runaway

Alice Munro is praised as a “Canadian Chekhov” and is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature with the evaluation “master of the contemporary short story” in 2013.Runaway,published in 2004,is Alice Munro's representative work and wins her that year's Giller Prize.The collection contains eight short stories that vividly illustrate the ordinary lives of the six female protagonists in small towns of Canada,portray their ambivalence,and express their strong desire to escape from life dilemmas.So far,critics' research perspectives on Runaway have mainly focused on feminist analysis,narratological analysis,thematic analysis,and stylistic analysis.There are few literature that interpret the work from the perspective of ethical literary criticism.Ethical literary criticism is a kind of critical method which interprets,analyzes and illuminates literary works from an ethical perspective.Based on the two cores,“ethical identity” and“ethical choices”,of ethical literary criticism,this thesis has deconstructed the ethical identities of the six heroines in Runaway in the discordant ethical situation and the ethical choices they make under the chaotic ethical identities.The ethical enlightenment for modern female readers has been drawn at last.The thesis begins with an introduction to Alice Munro and Runaway,and a review on previous studies towards them both abroad and at home.Besides,it summarizes the contents and literature review of ethical literary criticism.Then,under the guidance of ethical literary criticism theory,this thesis probes into the ethical identity of the six heroines in Runaway,which are female in the phallogocentrism society(Juliet,Robin,Tessa),daughter in traumatic family(Carla,Juliet,Lauren),and wife in unemotional marriage(Carla,Grace).On this basis,it focuses on the ethical choices made by the six heroines in the face of chaotic ethical identities.Specifically,they are: return(Carla,Robin),compromise(Juliet,Lauren)and self-destruction(Grace,Tessa).in the conclusion part,after an integration and comparison towards the eight stories,this thesis tries to draw the ethical enlightenment contained in Runaway.On the one hand,through the exploration towards the fleeing motivation and process of every heroine,this thesis concludes that it is a wise choice to escape in an appropriate geographical way.On the other hand,by comparing the result of each escape behavior,this thesis draws its main opinion.That is,an active spiritual escape is the ultimate way for self-salvation.