PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM

IN ALICE MUNRO’SSELECTED STORIES

ALICE MUNRO

Canadian Short story Writer Nobel Prize Winner (2013)1st Canadian Nobel LaureateCanadian Chekhov

SETTING

South Western Ontario

GENERAL REMARKS ABOUT

MUNRO’S STORIES

Voice of Canadian Identity

Depict Everyday life

Psychological Perception

THEMES OF MUNRO

Memory

Secret

Acting

PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM

Psychological Novel Manner of writingFlourishes late 19th and early 20th century1st appears in the 11th century Japanese literature

Psychological realism isconsidered to be character-driven and place special emphasison the interior life of theprotagonists or other point ofview characters. It arises fromthe motives, fears, andreactions of characters to thedilemmas.

Interior landscape of the characters

Plot and Settings are secondary

Few Characters

MUNRO’S CHARACTERS

Mostly Women

Feels alienation

Longing for love

Occupies loneliness

Self

THEMES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM

ALIENATION

LONELINESS

LOVE

SELF

SUB-DIVISIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL

REALISM

Subconscious

Memories

Intuition

Self

SUBCONSCIOUS

Store house of one’s knowledge and experience

Munro’s characters reflect the inner mind of the women.

Example:

The Progress of Love

Euphemia, the narrator subconsciously explains the incident of burning 3oo dollars by her mother.

MEMORIES

3 Stages

1st stage – encoding or register

2nd stage – storage

3rd stage - retrive

Characters live with their memories.

Example:

Ottawa Valley

The narrator lives with the memory of her mother and their trip to Ottawa, mother’s native.

INTUITION

Ability to understand the knowledge without obstruction

ExampleMiles City, Montana

The narrator suddenly enquires about her younger daughter Meg to elder daughter Cynthia. After that her husband pulls Meg out of water from the swimming pool.

SELF

Identity of one’s own

Every other woman characters express their own identity.

They are like journalist, writer, and so on.

CONCLUSION

First person narrationReflect rural Ontario peopleTrap with religiousReflects nature, Feminism,

Psychoanalytical TheoryPsychological realism is absolutely

differs from psychoanalytic criticism.

REFERENCE

Munro, Alice. Selected Stories. London:Random House, 1997.Print.

Kennedy, Patrick. “Psychological Realism.”About.com Classical Literature in Translation. Web.

Rushing, Elizabeth .“Psychological Realism.” Literature Rush. Web.

“Psychological Novel.” Jasonic. Web.

PRESENTED BY

T. DHIVYA, M.A; M.PHIL; P.G.D.C.A;

ASST. PROF

DEPT OF ENGLISH

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