Style and Blending in ‘The Peace of Utrecht’ by Alice Munro

In this article, I discuss linguistic and cognitive aspects of Munro’s style in “The Peace of Utrecht.” First, I examine how Munro uses subordination, semicolons, syntactic variations, and creative semantic prosodies. These features give the story’s prose its halting, uncertain, and probing qualities. Second, I explain the conceptual blend Munro evokes by referring at least twice to the historical event of The Peace of Utrecht (1713) in her story. Ending the War of the Spanish Succession was complex, but the relationship between the sisters in this story is equally complex.