The present paper investigates the naming process in Munro’s narrative, with a focus on the story “Meneseteung”, first published in the authoritative pages of The New Yorker (1988) and then included in the Canadian writer’s seventh collection of short stories Friend of My Youth (1990). Two names are given attention in their multiple resonances: ‘Meneseteung’, a river’s name, and ‘Almeda’, the female protagonist’s name. Meneseteung is analysed through the juxtaposition of its textual, prosodic, pholological and political implications: it evokes the Chippewa term for the Maitland River, this last being the anglophone name imposed by imperialist policies on Ontario maps. Along the storyline, another fil rouge unfolds in search of significations for the name Almeda: a nameless female narrator keeps looking for a name in order to retrace the poetess’ life, connecting the signifiers “Almeda Joynt Roth”, “Almeda Roth”, and “Meda”. The story thus multipies its polisemic strategies, and inhabits an open, fluid horizon of dislocations and deferrals. In this short story, names are much more than labels with the function of positioning the named item – be it a person, a place, or else on a geographical map or on a civic archive. Names are, in fact, sites of negotiation for identity, and historical and cultural issues. They are never accepted as definite products, but questioned as performative and open textual units. This exploration is of pivotal importance to appreciate the irreducible textual and linguistic dynamics weaving short stories that have captured the attention of readers for six decades.

Negotiation of Naming in Alice Munro’s ‘Meneseteung’ / Francesconi, Sabrina. - In: LES CAHIERS DE LA NOUVELLE. - ISSN 0294-0442. - STAMPA. - 55:(2010), pp. 109-122.

Negotiation of Naming in Alice Munro’s ‘Meneseteung’

Francesconi, Sabrina
2010-01-01

Abstract

The present paper investigates the naming process in Munro’s narrative, with a focus on the story “Meneseteung”, first published in the authoritative pages of The New Yorker (1988) and then included in the Canadian writer’s seventh collection of short stories Friend of My Youth (1990). Two names are given attention in their multiple resonances: ‘Meneseteung’, a river’s name, and ‘Almeda’, the female protagonist’s name. Meneseteung is analysed through the juxtaposition of its textual, prosodic, pholological and political implications: it evokes the Chippewa term for the Maitland River, this last being the anglophone name imposed by imperialist policies on Ontario maps. Along the storyline, another fil rouge unfolds in search of significations for the name Almeda: a nameless female narrator keeps looking for a name in order to retrace the poetess’ life, connecting the signifiers “Almeda Joynt Roth”, “Almeda Roth”, and “Meda”. The story thus multipies its polisemic strategies, and inhabits an open, fluid horizon of dislocations and deferrals. In this short story, names are much more than labels with the function of positioning the named item – be it a person, a place, or else on a geographical map or on a civic archive. Names are, in fact, sites of negotiation for identity, and historical and cultural issues. They are never accepted as definite products, but questioned as performative and open textual units. This exploration is of pivotal importance to appreciate the irreducible textual and linguistic dynamics weaving short stories that have captured the attention of readers for six decades.
2010
Francesconi, Sabrina
Negotiation of Naming in Alice Munro’s ‘Meneseteung’ / Francesconi, Sabrina. - In: LES CAHIERS DE LA NOUVELLE. - ISSN 0294-0442. - STAMPA. - 55:(2010), pp. 109-122.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/85142
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