Literature Review

Renowned at home and abroad for short stories, Alice Munro creates numerous works, which bring enormous impact on the growth of female and also attract many scholars to study from multiple angles. Most deal with the novel from the perspective of Writing techniques, narrative style, female images, identity and the background mixed with complicated era and environment. Besides, another field about the female consciousness and psychology is also worth exploring.

As we all known, Munro is proficient at describing ordinary female characters. Also, with her identity as a female writer, she conveys not only about the female character but also the female consciousness and the complex psychology. And this kind of issue appears stronger when confronted with more dramatic contrast between figures and the surroundings. So, some of the researchers try to analyze female psychology from the the behavior of female and the unique background. Chen(2000) discusses several scattered things in The Progress of Love to reconstruct the real life and the related relationships between husband and wife, family and children among three generations for the better understanding about the feeling of women. Zhao(2002) lists some typical heroines of Munro#8217;s short stories to show some distinct qualities of being independent, firm and persistent and points out the meaning of the difference between what they appear to be and what they really are, which implies the awareness of the female consciousness.

Apart from studying the simple female characters, some investigations are made from the aspect of the effect produced by male. During the growth of the female, it can not be denied that male plays an important role in shaping their characteristic and personality. While male#8217;s careless attitude towards female forces them to lose their voice and be trapped in their life. whenever in the relationship of being a daughter or being a wife or a mother, female often lies in the position of being controlled and defined. Little attention is paid on female psychology during t that period dominated by male. This kind of view is agreed by Xie and Zhang(2016), who also hold that there still exists a chance to transfer these negative factors into the opportunity of shaping a more complete and independent female character. Wang(2016) mentions that what makes a woman stronger is gripping their female consciousness and living bravely but escaping the reality merely for temporal comfort. In an essay arguing about the influence made by male, written by Zhou(2013), it reveals that the awareness of female consciousness will inspire women to seek for their value and rights, which brings enormous hope in promoting the situation changing into a more equal one.

Differ in explaining the external causes, some scholars devote themselves to interpreting the feeling and psychology of female by probing into the internal causes. Yan(2014) employs the critical theory of psychological realism to depict the conflict in their inner world. Luo(2015) combines this kind of theory to the development of plots. Others tend to decode the female images in Munro#8217;s fiction through the comparative study. Liu(2013) thinks that the subordination is the most important cause, and he divides it into inertia, dependency, servility and inferiority to summarizes the impact of subordination on female collective unconsciousness through comparing the reaction of women and their survival status. Similarly, in the view of duality, Lv amp; Hong(2016) regard that the fear in the mind keeps female struggling. Connected with philosophy theory, jiang(2015) points out that only do women overcome fear in their mind, can they meet their psychological needs to exist not just survive.

Reviewing the above-mentioned researches on female psychology and consciousness, there exists some limitations: first, most of the studies only concern about the female characters created by Munro, little words mentioned on analyzing the psychology of female. second, many scholars pay more attention to discussing the external factors, such as the female identity, gothic writing style and male image. Too much sympathy poured into female to maintain the objectivity. We can say that those outer causes trap them into a cage, while sometimes they do restrict themselves unconsciously. Third, although critical theory of psychological realism is applied, there is still a long way for people to probe into the psychology of female and female consciousness and the profound meaning of female#8217;s sacrifice for love.