The Weight of Things: Inheritance and Gender in Alice Munro's Short Fiction

This thesis examines the role of the material world in Alice Munro’s short fiction, particularly as it relates to gender roles imposed on women and girls in mid-twentieth-century rural Southern Ontario. In analyzing a body of work, including two short stories from the 2001 collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: “Family Furnishings” and “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage,” the study employs a new-materialist framework, informed by Bill Brown’s definition of “Things” as more dynamic and personal than what we consider objects. It uses close textual analysis to explore the relationship between the dynamic role of material things, especially inherited material things, and Munro’s comments on the female body and women’s role in society. The findings suggest that inherited material objects convey inherited gendered expectations of domesticity, and their aggressive behavior in the text evokes a hostile domestic world, one in which dynamics of ownership and inheritance complicate the presentation of gender roles in the text. This analysis sheds light on Munro’s portrayal of the complexities of female identity and domestic life.