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“Spelling”: Alice Munro and the Caretaking Daughter

Nicholson, Debra
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1277154814

Abstract Details

2010, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English/Literature.
Alice Munro, the renowned Canadian short story writer, has written, over the course of her long career, no fewer than seventeen stories that feature an ill mother as the primary or tangential theme in a daughter’s narrative. While some critics focus on uncovering autobiographical elements of the stories (Munro’s mother endured early-onset Parkinson’s disease), and others vaguely complain that Munro is merely re-writing the same story again and again, no critic has investigated the range and depth of affect produced by maternal illness proffered in her stories, a topic that appears to be a major concern of Munro’s creative life. This thesis serves to initiate this critical discussion. An analysis of Munro’s story, “Spelling,” provides fruitful material for the discussion of the discourse of caretaking. Women are socialized to provide caretaking via the cultural ideal of the good mother; daughters are socialized to be good daughters by caring for their elderly ill mothers. Middle-aged daughter Rose returns home to care for her stepmother Flo. I track Rose’s caretakingjourney by first discussing her entrapment in the gendered norms of caretaking. Then, I argue that Rose capitulates to the discourse of sacrificial caretaking by desiring to care for Flo in a full-time capacity. I submit that Rosebegins to reclaim her subjectivity after she arrives home when she realizes she cannot become the perfect caretaker. After Flo moves into the County Home, Rose resists the stereotype of the non-caretaking daughter by deploying certain strategies to justify her role of the non-caretaking daughter. I argue that Rose’s focus on combating the stereotype of the non-caretaking daughter overshadows her subjective response to caretaking. Her thoughts and actions, therefore, re-inscribe the polarized norms of the good daughter/bad daughter binary. I conclude that Munro’s story illuminates a daughter’s affective difficulty in claiming subjectivity when attempting to legitimize her caretaking position in the situation created by maternal illness.
Bill Albertini (Committee Chair)
Beth Casey (Committee Member)
149 p.
Canadian Literature; English literature; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gerontology; Health; Personal Relationships; Sociology; Womens Studies
Alice Munro; daughters; ill mothers; caretaking; good daughter/bad daughter discourse

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Nicholson, D. (2010). “Spelling”: Alice Munro and the Caretaking Daughter [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1277154814

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Nicholson, Debra. “Spelling”: Alice Munro and the Caretaking Daughter. 2010. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1277154814.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Nicholson, Debra. "“Spelling”: Alice Munro and the Caretaking Daughter." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1277154814

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.