Constructing Childhood through Remembrance in Selected Short Stories by Alice Munro

Abstract

This article attempts to study a selection of short stories by the contemporary Canadian writer Alice Munro (1931–) focusing on the theme of childhood. It examines the representation of childhood as remembered by adult narrators. The research approaches the stories through the theories of narratology and psychoanalysis. The concepts of the narrator in addition to Freud's theorisation about childhood memories are especially utilised to explore the childhood memories of the adult narrators. The stories selected for this study are ‘The Ottawa Valley’ (1974), ‘Chaddeleys and Flemings’ (1979), ‘The Progress of Love’ (1985) and ‘The Eye’ (2012) with adult narrators.