Three Sophisticated Ladies and Their Turns of Discourse: Edith Wharton, Flannery O’Connor, Alice Munro

Abstract

My paper focuses on certain “turns of discourse” which can make the main messages of literary masterpieces by Edith Wharton, Flannery O’Connor, and Alice Munro communicate, despite differences in time, space, culture. Thus the label of feminism may be superficial here. What these three writers of canonical world literature share is a fine gift for feminine irony, that is responsible for both their stylistic virtuosity and their thematic choices. I was particularly interested in their intricate views and ways of dealing with the difficulties of the mother-daughter relationship in their exclusively concise short fiction. The horror, (hurt) hubris, and humility of actually living such life experiences and then turning them into literary artifacts have represented my special concern here. The sweet sharp thorns of this classic challenge in real life can make of it the inexhaustible literary theme confirmed by each one and all of these “three sophisticated ladies” in their splendid works.

Keywords

• daughterhood
• intertextuality
• irony
• metafiction
• motherhood