A Feminist Reading Of Alice Munro’s Runaway

Alice Munro is a famous short story writer. She has made great contribution tothe development of Canadian and world literature, and her short stories have made hergain prestigious reputation. In October,2013, she won the Nobel Literature Prize andin its prize announcement, Swedish Academy called her “master of contemporaryshort stories”. Munro is good at portraying common people in ordinary life. ThoughMunro doesn’t admit that she is a feminist writer, she always describes commonwoman’s life and experience with her keen insight and incredible intelligence. Munrolikes to capture every vivid moment of woman’s life and complicated psychologicalactivities of woman. Runaway is her latest collection of short stories, which won theGiller Prize in Canada after it was published. There are eight short stories in thiscollection, and every short story has a common woman as heroine. In every story,Munro also captures woman’s experience and suffering with her love and passion.Born in1931, Alice Munro was influenced by the second wave of feminisminevitably, which appeared in the1960’s in Europe. The second wave of feminisminherited and developed the opinions of the first wave, with the aim of criticizinggender discrimination and patriarchy. What’s more, the second wave of feminismdrew focus on women’s intra-consciousness, waking up women’s feminism to changethe male-centered society. Therefore, it is necessary and meaningful to analyzeRunaway from feminist perspective. And even if a few scholars have made researcheson it from feminist perspective, those researches often pay much attention to its theme,but there are few deep and comprehensive researches on it from feminist perspective.This study will analyze woman’s suffering under patriarchy and researchwoman’s unwise rebellion on basis of feminist theories. It will summarize their resultsof escape and explore the reasons for their failure of escape. It tells us women can’thave a better understanding of themselves and theirs’ female consciousness is notripening under the oppression of patriarchy. If woman want to live a better and freelife, they should get economical and mental dependence to build up an equal socialculture.