Search

The paper explores the dimensions of focalization from the point of view of cognitive poetics leaning on the idea that focalization directly affects the reading experience and, therefore, the reception of the narrative discourse. The importance of deixis, their referential value in the storytelling process and reception, is illustrated on the example of the short story “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You” by Alice Munro. Focalization is treated as a rhetorical instrument modifying various layers of the narrative discourse and strategically guiding the process of reception. The first section presents the theories relevant for the understanding of the concept of focalization, and it includes a short overview of deixis from the point of view of cognitive poetics. The analysis of the short story by Alice Munro follows to serve as an illustration of the rhetorical flexibility of storytelling. Finally, the concluding remarks offer arguments against the conventional comprehension and interpretation of third-person narration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alice Munro published in 2012 her last collection of short stories, Dear Life, which includes "Finale", a quartet of stories introduced by the author in semiautobiographical terms. The relevance of the themes addressed is, as may be inferred, significant in relation to her life and previous work. In fact, they echo her first two collections of short stories --Dance of the Happy Shades (1968) and Lives of Girls and Women (1971)-- not only in motifs and events, but also in style. This paper analyses and compares this last section --Munro's conclusive contribution to the literary world-- with her early work to establish joint features and similarities in order to support and extend the often-claimed autobiographical dimension of Munro's fiction from this unexplored perspective. In addition, this process of analogy has recognised the author's literary and emotional closure in relation to her mother, a hitherto elusive endeavour in her work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's views on the literary career of Canadian short story writer Alice Munro. Various topics discussed include Nobel Prize for Literature she received, award she received for her story collection "Dance of the Happy Shades," her fictional writings and her career in Canadian literature.

This article examines the last part of the novel "The Ottawa Valley" by Alice Munro. According to Munro, the last paragraph of the book expresses dissatisfaction with art. The story focuses on the narrator's memory of a trip made with her mother and sister to her mother's old home in Ottawa Valley. The author argues that the ending is compelling because it has been foreshadowed by a series of humiliations that constitutes the story. The author concludes that Munro learned to foreground her guilt by reaching a new level of self-reflexivity.