Psychological Realism In Alice Munro’s Short Stories

Alice Munro(1931—) as the first Canadian Nobel Prize laureate in Literature 2013 is the most universally acknowledged as a “master of the contemporary short story” by the Swedish Academy. Since the 1960 s, the feminist movement in Canada has sprung up owing to the influence of the feminist movement in European and American countries. The writers who are deeply affected by the feminist movement probe into the complicated problems women come across in family and society. Munro also begins focusing on the small-town ordinary people of the southeast Ontario, Canada, especially the women with concealed tragedy in their daily life. And she always concentrates on women’s spiritual world and their complex inner world as well as their living conditions in her works at that time. Critics and scholars at home and abroad principally study Munro’s short stories from narratology, feminism, geographical settings, gothic studies, realism and so forth. But there is not much more research on the inner world of the characters. Therefore, based on Henry James’ s psychological realism, this thesis focuses on Munro’s tenth short story collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. A close reading is applied to the thesis, which aims at examining women’s living conditions in the different environments. On the one hand, the findings indicate that the women’s inner world is profoundly affected by the external realities; on the other hand, their inner world and psychological changes mirror the external realities as well.This thesis consists of three parts. The first part is the introduction including the current researches on Alice Munro and her short stories both at home and abroad; research motivation and questions; research approaches, objectives and organizations of this thesis. The second part is main body of the thesis which consists of five parts. Chapter One introduces the psychological realism and the features of this theory in Alice Munro’s short stories so as to study the feasibility of this theory to her short stories. Chapter Two to Five are mainly intended to analyze the relations between the characters’ psychological world and the external realities through the psychological realism and the textual close reading. Chapter Two mainly focuses on “Family Furnishings” to figure out the narrator’s wandering mind resulting from the conflicts between the traditions of the small town and the urban civilizations. And the narrator discovers that her father and Alfrida are profoundly affected by the contradictions between the tradition and the modern society so that they have to conceal their love. Chapter Three first interprets the narrator’s bewildered and painful mind caused by building the perfect self. Second it reveals their untouchable and stranded love influenced by the traditional morals and ethics in “Nettles”. Chapter Four argues Meriel’s ambiguous and ambivalent mind within an uncertain and changeable life. She makes the transient and unforgettable love sealed in memory in “What Is Remembered”. And chapter Five analyzes Fiona’s traumatic mind resulting from “Alzheimer’s Disease” and sorrows hidden in her heart in “The Bear Came Over the Mountain”. The dependent and absurd relation between Fiona and Aubrey reflects Grant’s past betrayal to Fiona and his disloyal to their love.The third part comes to a conclusion. There are differences and mutual connections among these women’s understanding of the feminism and their attitudes towards the life and marriage in these four short stories. There are commonness and individuality as well. In terms of their commonness, first, these women who live in the small town of the southeast Ontario, Canada, are deeply affected by the feminism; they attempt to change their fates so as to achieve their independence and freedom physically and spiritually. Then, in terms of their individuality, they respectively stand for three kinds of women Munro always creates. The first kind refers to the traditional women living in the male-centered society. The second kind refers to the middle-aged women who cannot get free from the trammels of the tradition although they take a strong sense of female consciousness. The third kind refers to a younger generation of the modern women. At last, the women’s understanding of the feminism respectively evolves from a state of the deep sleep, the vagueness to the awakening.By studying Munro’s short stories the revelation of the life is concluded that women are supposed to worship the independence and the freedom and free their mind to start their own career. Only in this way can they keep independent in economy and personality without pinning their destiny to the family and the men. In a word, only when they do something significant to achieve self-value in more places except family can they acquire equality, liberty and respect from the others so as to enrich the significance of their lives finally.