“The Mother-Daughter Relationship” as Material in Alice Munro’s Short Stories

This thesis explores the mother-daughter relationship in Alice Munro’s fiction, an obsessive theme she frequently revisits, often drawing on autobiographical material. Through an analysis of selected passages from Munro’s only novel Lives of Girls and Women (1971) and the close reading of selected short stories, “The Peace of Utrecht” (1968), “Winter Wind” (1974), “The Ottawa Valley” (1974), “Friend of My Youth” (1990) and “Home” (2006), this study traces the evolution of the author’s exploration of this complex dynamic. Additionally, selected passages from the “FINALE” of Munro’s latest collection Dear Life (2012), are considered. The mother-daughter issue is examined from a psychoanalytic perspective, as framed by American sociologist Nancy Chodorow, with a focus on the formation of feminine identity in relation to the ongoing mother-daughter relationship. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that Munro has used her fiction as an attempt to come to terms with her personal traumatic past, without ever succeeding.