| Any reading of Alice Munro's fiction reveals a discourse self-conscious about women's identity. From Munro's first collection to her latest, sexuality occupies a central position in this exploration of identity, and functions in a variety of important ways, both thematically and formally. This thesis investigates Munro's interest in the sexual self as embodied, that is, as experienced through a specifically female body, an interest that is embedded within a larger preoccupation with the emergence of woman as speaker, actor and author of her own life.;Informed primarily by a feminist theoretical perspective, the thesis explores the meaning of sexuality in Munro's work by examining first its primary thematic expressions, namely, the formation of the subject in and through sexuality as a rite of passage and sexuality's connection to self-representation, desire and the assumption of gender roles. Then, turning to Munro's forms of writing, it analyzes her narrative strategy, especially regarding plot, when writing of sexuality. Finally, the thesis considers how Munro envisages sexuality as embodied--specifically in women's bodies--and how this embodiment is expressed through her particular use of figurative language to speak of the female body and female sexuality. |
