Reading In

Joann Mccaig

Description

What can we learn about authorship through a reading of a writer’s archive?

Collections of authors’ manuscripts and correspondence have traditionally been used in ways that further illuminate the published text. JoAnn McCaig sets out to show how archival materials can also provide fascinating insights into the business of culture, reveal the individuals, institutions, and ideologies that shape the author and her work, and describe the negotiations that occur between an author and the cultural marketplace. Using a feminist cultural studies approach, JoAnn McCaig “reads in” to the archives of acclaimed Canadian short story writer Alice Munro in order to explore precisely how the terms “Canadian,” “woman,” “short story,” and “writer” are constructed in her writing career. Munro’s correspondence with mentor Robert Weaver, agent Virginia Barber, publishers Doug Gibson and Ann Close, and writer John Metcalf tell a fascinating story of how one very determined and gifted writer made her way through the pitfalls of the culture business to achieve the enviable authority she now claims.

McCaig’s discussion of her own difficulties with obtaining copyright permission for the book raises important questions about freedom of scholarly inquiry and about the unforeseen difficulties and limitations of archival research. Despite these difficulties, McCaig’s reading of the Munro archives succeeds in examining the business of culture, the construction of the aesthetic, and the impact of gender, genre, nationality, and class on authorship. While on one level telling the story of one author’s career — the progress of Alice Munro, so to speak — the book also illustrates how cultural studies analysis suggests ways of opening up the rich but underutilized literary resource of authorial archives to all researchers.

Sujets

• Canadian literature
• Literary criticism

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780889209480
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Reading In Alice Munros Archives

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Reading In Alice Munros Archives

JoAnn McCaig

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We acknowledge the sup port of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowl edge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

McCaig, JoAnn, 1953 Reading in : Alice Munros archives

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0889203369

1. Munro, Alice, 1931 .

PS8576.U57Z76 2002 PR9199.3.M8Z73 2002

2. Munro, Alice, 1931 Archives.

C813.54

© 2002 JoAnn McCaig

I. Title.

C999323725

Cover art:Between the Lines(Party Series), mixed media on paper by Gloria Kagawa, reproduced courtesy of the artist. (View this and other works at http://www.gloriakagawa.com.)

Cover design by Leslie Macredie

PrintedinCanada

All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanicalwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping, or reproducing in information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed in writing to the Canadian Reprography Collective, 214 King Street West, Suite 312, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3S6.

Dedicated with affection and gratitude to Helen Buss and to the Wednesday Circle: Audrey Andrews Donna Coates Roberta Jackson Elaine Park

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Chapter IV Short Story Remaking Genre

Chapter III Woman Useful Recognitions and Misrecognitions

Chapter V Writer Implications of Authority

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Acknowledgements xvii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chapter I Introduction Wrestling with a Fine Woman

Chapter II Canadian Creating the Creator

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Preface

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1

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

viii

Chapter VI Conclusion What Is a Canadian Woman Short Story Author?

Reading In

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Appendixes Appendix 1 An Overview of Fair Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Appendix 2 Short Story Anthologies Edited by Robert Weaver or John Metcalf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Notes

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Works Cited 177. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Index

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PREFACE

This is not the book I wanted to publish. This is not the book I originally wrote. The work before you is a drastically edited version of a manuscript (based on my doctoral research) which I submitted to Wilfrid Laurier University Press in the autumn of 1997. These changes became necessary when Alice Munro, along with her literary agent, Virginia Barber, and her editor at Knopf, Ann Close, declined to give me permission to quote from their correspondence, which is collected at the University of Calgary. In the fall of 1997, Barber and Munro reluctantly granted me permission, through an intermediary, to quote their correspon dence for an article inEssays on Canadian Writing.Ann Close queried a few items, but willingly gave her permission for the article, titled Alice Munros Agency: The Virginia Barber Correspondence. However, I ran into difficulty when I approached these three women directly in the spring of 1999 for permission to quote their letters in this book. In the cases of Close and Barber, there has been no direct refusalsimply no response. And initially, Munro only refused me permission to quote from her letters to John Metcalf, which are collected in his archive. At the time I thought, well, fair enough. These are per

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