Telling Secrets: Alternative Paths to Truth in Alice Munro's OPEN SECRETS

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Reid, Amy

Keywords

Emotions, Munro, Alice, Feminism, Short Stories

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine narrative strategies in Open Secrets, a short story collection by Alice Munro. I focus specifically on "A Wilderness Station," "Open Secrets," and "Vandals," arguing that each story subverts a specific literary genre�the wilderness narrative, the detective story, and the romance, respectively�and that Munro uses our generic expectations to emphasize the ways in which knowledge can be obtained through emotions. With reference to Morwenna Griffiths' explanation of "consciousnessraising," I explore the way that the subjective, emotional experiences of Munro's characters point us towards larger truths with political implications. Emotions and subjectivity have traditionally been viewed as hindrances that need to be overcome in pursuit of truth, but the questions raised in Open Secrets cannot be answered using analysis alone. Rather, in order to uncover the meaning of the stories, the reader must access the emotional experiences of Munro's characters, and connect these, in some way, to his or her own emotional experience. While Munro's stories place great value on emotional intelligence, they are also highly concerned with social structures, and especially, with various manifestations of male domination. We see that the intelligence Munro's female characters possess arises directly from their subordinated position; they learn to read emotions in part because they need to be alert to male violence, and they weave together narrative connections in order to survive. The experience of reading these stories, then, becomes what philosopher Martha Nussbaum calls "exercises in compassion": artistic experiences that allow the reader to take on another's emotions in a space safe from the dangers of societal power structures.

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