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“Autobiographical in Feeling But Not in Fact”: the Finale of Alice Munro’s Dear Life Cover

“Autobiographical in Feeling But Not in Fact”: the Finale of Alice Munro’s Dear Life

Open Access
|Jan 2016

Abstract

Alice Munro has always been known for reworking personal material in her stories. On numerous occasions she openly admitted to adopting some of her real experiences into her fiction, yet at the same time she declared that her writing remains fictional, not autobiographical. However, the writer’s attitude seems to have changed with the publication of Dear Life (2012), supposedly the last book in her career. In the note preceding the last four stories in the collection, she suggests that they might constitute her autobiography.

This article discusses “The Eye,” “Night,” “Voices” and “Dear Life” in relation to Munro’s biography. It reflects on the narrative techniques the author uses to create the impression of authenticity and autobiographicality in the stories. It also aims to answer the question whether they should be indeed classified as Munro’s autobiography.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/stap-2015-0029 | Journal eISSN: 2082-5102 | Journal ISSN: 0081-6272
Language: English
Page range: 141 - 153
Published on: Jan 12, 2016
Published by: Adam Mickiewicz University
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2016 Magdalena Ładuniuk, published by Adam Mickiewicz University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.