Mirroring the Mind: A Cognitive Literary Study of Alice Munro's Narrative Technique in "Post and Beam"

Abstract

Abstract

Alice Munro, a master of the contemporary short story, is often celebrated for her ability to compress entire lifetimes and emotional depth within the confines of a few pages. In order to account for the narrative expansiveness often attributed to Munro’s short stories, this thesis examines characteristic features of Munro’s narrative technique in “Post and Beam.” Drawing on cognitive literary theory, the study analyses Munro's use of non-linear temporality, shifting narrative voice, and delayed epiphanic insight in relation to cognitive processes of memory retrieval, social alignment, and retrospective meaning formation. The analysis demonstrates that Munro’s narrative strategies compress information through structures that mirror human cognition, offering an account of the sense of narrative breadth often associated with her short fiction. The thesis contributes to existing Munro narrative studies while also highlighting the value of cognitive literary approaches in the analysis of her work.