‘Something I’ve been meaning to tell you’: Epistolary ‘writing back’ in Alice Munro’s stories

Abstract

Even though the narrative art of Alice Munro’s short stories has been widely studied, the use of letters as a recurring narrative element has so far been neglected. Letters are, however, central in Munro’s work as more than twenty of epistolary short stories in her oeuvre show. The letters in these stories fulfil a variety of functions. They become ‘third space[s]’ for the realization of romantic games or a means of therapy enabling the immediate reliving of an experience. This article focuses on the function of ‘writing back to the centre’ as it is displayed in two of Munro’s short stories: ‘Material’, collected in Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (1974), and ‘A Wilderness Station’, collected in Open Secrets (1994). An analysis of the letters in these stories from the ‘writing back’ lens shows that Munro’s understanding of ‘writing back’ differs significantly from the postcolonialist origin of the concept and is predominantly linked to a feminist dimension.

The Oppression and Subversion of Annie: A Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of A Wilderness Station

“…Some scholars analyze Annie's predicaments in combination with the unique epistolary narrative characteristics of this story. Rebekka Schuh (2016) has manifested the function of letters in this story from Munro's "writing back" lens linked to a feminist dimension. In China, Yuan Xia (2016) has explored the nationbuilding narrative in the story.…”