Homecoming, You and Genre in “Mlle. Dias de Corta”

Abstract

This paper focuses on style and aesthetic risk in a single Mavis Gallant story, “Mlle. Dias de Corta.” It considers the narrative trajectory in this story that is in letter form but is a letter that can never be received because the intended recipient’s whereabouts are unknown. In examining Gallant’s story, I consider the vast emotional terrain the narrator traverses, while also looking at generic considerations, you-narrative and the foundations on which the narrator’s apparently sudden change in character are based.

Keywords

• Mavis Gallant
• genre
• short story
• you-narrative