|
HOME »
WORKSHOPS » FICTION » ALICE MUNRO, "BOYS AND GIRLS" » EXPLORATIONS
Alice Munro, "Boys and Girls"
BIOGRAPHY
Reading » Re-Reading » Explorations
The Canadian Literary Context
Alice Munro is one of Canada's most honored writers of fiction, and Canada—primarily Ontario and Vancouver—is the setting of most of her stories. Margaret Laurence and Margaret Atwood are two other contemporary Canadian fiction writers whose work is sometimes compared with hers. Her work also has broad international appeal, and she counts American women writers such as Eudora Welty and Willa Cather as important influences. Browse the following sites and consider Munro's place in Canadian literature or in the broader canon of women's writing by developing a comparison with another writer.
Munro on Writing
Alice Munro has frequently spoken about the craft of writing, as she understands it, and some of these interviews are online now including this brief interview (Random House). Judith Maclean Miller has also reacted to three interviews in "An Inner Bell That Rings: The Craft of Alice Munro" (The Antigonish Review). Other interviews have been published (see bibliography in Coral Ann Howells's book, Alice Munro). Another article, "Alice Munro: The Short Answer" by Alex Keegan, discusses the special kinds of short stories that Munro writes. What sort of insight do her statements and these articles offer into "Boys and Girls"?
Fact and Fiction
Munro's stories often deal with the subject of lies and secrets and the truths behind them. As she often does, she has drawn on her own "factual" experience for this story; she grew up on a rural farm in Canada, her father was a fox farmer, and she had a younger brother (and a sister). But the story lies less in these facts than in the secret life of the protagonist. She has also said: "When I was about fifteen I made the glorious leap from being a victim of my own . . . self-conscious miseries to being a godlike arranger of patterns and destinies, even if they were all in my head; I have never leapt back." Explore elements in the story which anticipate this "glorious leap" into storytelling, including the role of a narrator who turns facts into fiction. [Quoted by Coral Ann Howells, Alice Munro, 1998.]
Growing Up Female
Growing up female requires that girls internalize many conflicting messages. This was especially true in the 1930s in rural Canada. Yet we can find authors working through similar conflicts, often with autobiographical roots, in other times and cultures. The anthology presents several examples: Amy Tan's "A Pair of Tickets" (LIT 168, LITS 159), Jamaica Kincaid, "Girl" (LIT 476, LITS 409), Marge Piercy, "Barbie Doll" (LIT 883, LITS 619), and Audre Lorde, "Hanging Fire" (LIT 876, LITS 656). There are many other women writers with similar works, including Sylvia Plath, Eudora Welty, Maya Angelou, and Maxine Hong Kingston. Choose at least two of these works and write an essay of comparison, looking at the conflicts the girls encounter and how language is used to resolve them for the older authors.
|
Icon Directory
 In The Portable Intro to Literature
 In The Seagull Reader
 In Portable & The Seagull Reader
|
