Alice Munro's Narrative Art

Among the first critical works on Alice Munro's writing, this study of her short fiction is informed by the disciplines of narratology and literary linguistics. Through examining Munro's narrative art, Isla Duncan demonstrates a rich understanding of the complex, densely layered, often unsettling stories.

"A useful companion to any study of Munro's work . . . will inspire the reader to return to familiar Munro collections." - British Journal of Canadian Studies

"Duncan (research associate, Univ. of Chichester, UK) explores the short studies of the brilliant Canadian writer Alice Munro. Munro's work evokes small Canadian towns and the generations of people growing up in them, living seemingly quiet lives. As Duncan reveals, the lives are not quiet in that nothing happens; there is the darkness, violence, sexual strain, and strangeness that characterize Munro's best work. Duncan's book is readable and explains both the narrative craft and the stories themselves as they unfold in time and space - sometimes spaces that are too small for the characters who want more although they may not be sure what they want. Munro's work deserves this kind of solid textual analysis of the shadowy spaces within her stories and the silences they contain as well. The reader comes to see how Munro works with memory and how tricky memory is in terms of what one is sure of and what actually happened. Duncan shows why Munro's seemingly quiet fiction leaves the reader silent as well, barely understanding how in such simple stories Munro creates tension, snap, verve, wildness. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers." - CHOICE, K. Gale, University of Nebraska

"This wonderful book represents a major advance inCanadian literary studies. It takes us on a journey into what Duncan calls 'the exciting world of narratology,' revealing the power of literary linguistics to illuminate Alice Munro's fiction. Duncan's close readings are perceptive, lucid, and sometimes quirky, offering a genuinely fresh perspective on Munro's strange, endlessly intriguing stories." - Faye Hammill, Professor of English, University of Strathclyde, UK

"While many critics have drawn attention to Munro's complex narrative disruptions and disarrangements, her almost archaeological interest in digging down through layers of time, no existing study provides the thorough-going discussion of narrative strategies offered here." - Catherine Sheldrick Ross, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, Canada

"[A] beautiful demonstration of how 'narratology' can help to better understand the aesthetics and the beauty of Munro's stories Published two years before Munro received the Nobel Prize, this prescient study will contribute to inspiring students to read or reread these beautifully constructed stories more carefully, more attuned to narrative variations and life's subtleties." Canadian Literature

ISLA DUNCAN Research associate at the University of Chichester, UK.