The Violence Of Norm And Women’s Bodies:On The Women’s Body Narration In Alice Munro’s Lives Of Girls And Women

Alice Munro is a well-known short story author who always provides insight into the lives of the women in her environment through her dexterous prose and astute observations.Munro was somewhat of a witness to the various stages of feminism’s development,as her existence spanned the spectacular march of women’s liberation.Munro developed her distinctive woman’s perspective and narrative style,in other words,the writing of women in everyday life,with the assistance of her experience and research,which enabled her to get a thorough grasp of the struggle of women in reality.In order to create a vibrant and diversified cosmos of women,Munro describes the delicate and convoluted psychological trajectories of women as well as their experiences of growing up in the everyday minutiae of their lives.In Lives of Girls and Women,Munro uses the perspective of a little girl named Del Jordan to describe the circumstances and way of life of other typical ladies in her neighborhood.This results in the portrayal of numerous different representations of women.Their lives’ bittersweet sorrows and delights provide us a glimpse into the tyranny of the women’s bodies brought on by the normalized violence they experience every day.Feminists like Judith Butler use genealogy and archaeology to study the dynamic normative oppression of the woman’s body in the evolution of human civilization over time.This methodology is influenced by Foucault’s theory that the body is disciplined by power.These standards shape the state of the women’s body that society demands and,depending on how they are applied,influence how visible the woman’s body is.Via a number of different avenues,these norms pervade the lives of women and shape their behavior while denying them the freedom to be themselves.Using this theoretical framework,this thesis investigates the status and factors that contribute to the diverse forms of women’s bodies that are acknowledged,removed,and covered by normative violence in the Lives of Girls and Women.The two sorts of women’s bodies acknowledged in the text are examined in the first chapter,along with their underlying causes.According to the norms governing the state’s authority,one category is regarded as prohibited,the other is considered a citizen.They get the recognition of their bodies by adhering to and submitting to standards.The other is represented in gender relations as desirable bodies that conform to agreed gender norms and are viewed as “visible bodies” by men.Both types of women’s bodies must be willing to give up their initiative to conform to norms in order to be acknowledged.They are powerless to fight back,exposing the norm’s brutal nature.Normative violence starts to take place when the woman’s body starts to behave violently due to an awakened feeling of resistance.Thus,chapter two explores the removed woman’s body that,as a result of normative violence,experiences derealization—the loss of its perception of reality.Within the text,this kind of woman’s body can be divided into two categories.One is the absent woman’s body,which is barred from public debate,and the other is the hysterical woman’s body.The latter becomes the discriminated or even ignored portion of human civilization’s norms,that is,the mad,as a result of normative violence.It loses its sense of truth and is thus destroyed.This causes a “social death” due to the “absence of the body” because they are excluded from public settings.Finally,the removal of women’s bodies from the public sphere deprives them of their possessions.The third chapter focuses on the women’s bodies that are the product of normative violence resistance.The first part shows how the distortion of the body is created by external violence.It is a form of external resistance by women,whether they are actively resisting or being pushed by external forces.This is done by examining how women’s bodies are twisted by external violence.They attempt resistance,but it is unsuccessful because it is only superficially full.Their methods and outcomes of resistance are deformed,and as a consequence,their bodies are covered.The latter section explores the means of internal resistance,such as the pursuit of knowledge,by exploring the awakening of the woman’s body as a result of the emergence of a sense of challenge to tradition and norms within women.However,it is also covered because such opposition is still in the groping phase.The thesis concludes that women’s bodies should not accept or escape the norms they face,but can actively confront and coexist with the norms they encounter in order to create a dynamic balance between their own presence and those norms.