We asked readers if Alice Munro’s works became worse after the revelation about her life

Alice Munro’s daughter revealed that the author’s husband had abused her as a child. Many readers are now reconsidering their relationship with the author’s works.

Over the past year, the literary world has been shocked by a series of revelations.

According to Skinner, he had not told his mother until he grew up 16 years later. Munro had been shocked, but had remained by her husband’s side. The relationship between her daughter and Munro broke down.

We asked those familiar with Alice Munro’s work how their relationship with the beloved author’s works has changed since the revelations.

Indeed, the events of Munro’s own life have begun to resemble the subjects of his short stories in the readers’ mind.

What is allowed for artists’ differences?

Munro’s short stories have highlighted silent topics: family -in -law secrets, unhappy marriages, sexual abuse and everyday violence. The same themes have now emerged from the author’s own life.

Pirinen recalls that artists production is evaluated in modern times than before.

* After the We Too* movement, the artist’s differences are no longer allowed for bad behavior that has been approved in the past.

\”Artists must be ethical and, in a way, make their art on ethical terms,\” \u200b\u200bsays Pirinen.

Partly it is a reaction. In the past, in particular, the artist’s differences have been glorified and the use of artists seen as geniuses has been viewed through the fingers.

In today’s world, the production of writers and the writers themselves often mix. Although Alice Munro avoided public appearances and did not often comment on her short stories, they were read as autobiographical as a writer’s lifetime.

– Sometimes media debate does not distinguish between fiction and fact. Munro’s life is strongly mixed with his stories, which, however, are fiction and are meant to be read as a fiction, says Riikka Pirinen.

Difficult subjects in short stories

Do Munro’s life revelations make her short stories better or worse? At least the texts have become more difficult and difficult to interpret.

– Munro’s own life has come through a fiction in a way I would not wish, says Riikka Pirinen, referring to how her works are read after the revelation.

The revelations have changed the interpretation of short stories. Especially the short stories whose topic is related to the abuse of children.

When her daughter told Munro about her exploitation, the author may have reacted to writers typically by writing Novell. The other protagonist of 1993 *Vandals *Novell is a woman whose childhood experiences come to the surface with the death of the abuser. The neighbor’s man had curtained the abuse.

Pimenoff wants to defend the fact that it is also possible to deal with difficult topics in fiction.

\”There must also be justification for the existence of literature with morally questionable, contradictory, or concerned themes,\” says Pimenoff in an interview with Kulttuurkkönen.

Pimenoff wonders that it is difficult to read short story without thinking about Munro’s own life and how he testified to the suffering of his own daughter.

A moral judgment?

According to Ida Pimenoff, the literary value of Munro’s short stories will remain, but the readers’ relationship with them has changed.

– They are insanely cleverly built and nicely told. Consciousness of the details, rhythm – it hasn’t changed anywhere, Pimenoff ponders.

Pimenoff adds that concentration on the technical side of short stories may be difficult after the revelation. According to Riikka Pirinen, the re -evaluation of Munro’s value is not so much related to condemning the quality of her works, but on their morality. The shock comes from the fact that Munro has written a lot in a tone that understands children, for example.

\”It refers to a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between text and society,\” Långström wrote in a column published in Aftonbladet.

Ida Pimenoff disagrees. He must be able to view the work of a fictional act and the events of true life separately – even if the events of real life influence how the reader is about the text. Even after the revelation, there is not one right way to approach Munro’s production.

– If someone feels that they no longer want to return to Munro’s short stories, it must be respected. But of course, I hope there is no general requirement that no one should like or read their short stories anymore, says writer Ida Pimenoff.