/
Teachers Question Teaching Alice Munro After Learning Sad News
/
Intermediate
Intermediate
FILE - Canadian author Alice Munro is photographed during an interview in Victoria, B.C. Tuesday, Dec.10, 2013. (Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Teachers Question Teaching Alice Munro After Learning Sad News

July 16th, 2024

Alice Munro is a famous Canadian writer known for her great short stories. She won a big award called the Nobel Prize. Robert Lecker, a teacher at McGill University, has always loved reading and talking about Alice Munro's stories. He thinks she is very important for Canadian books. But now, Lecker is not sure if he should teach about her in his classes. This is because Alice Munro's daughter, Andrea, shared a sad story. She said that Munro's husband did very bad things to her when she was young. Munro knew about it but stayed with her husband. People who liked Munro's writing are now thinking differently about her. Even a special job at a university named after her is not going to have anyone working in it while they think about this news. Two teachers at Harvard University are also not sure if they should teach her stories the same way as before. They say it's hard to talk about Munro's writing without thinking about her family's story. A student says she still likes Munro's stories but it's hard to understand Munro as both a writer and a mother. Another teacher says it's okay to like her writing even if she made bad choices. Her stories might mean more to us now that we know about her life. But, he also says that writers don't have to be perfect people.
AI isn't perfect, so some things may be inaccurate. We don't necessarily endorse the views or information you see here and provide it for language learning purposes only.

💭 Discussion Questions


1
. Who is Alice Munro and why is she famous?
2
. Why is Robert Lecker unsure about teaching Munro's stories in his classes?
3
. Can we enjoy a writer's stories even if they made bad choices in their personal life?

📖 Vocabulary


🌐 Cultural context


Alice Munro is a notable Canadian author recognized for her short stories. She received the prestigious Nobel Prize. This controversy about her personal life impacts how her work is viewed and taught in Canada, reflecting societal discussions on separating art from the artist's personal actions.

🧠 Further reading


Research ethics
Ethics in research are important rules that help scientists do their work in a good and fair way. These rules are about being honest and also about taking care of people and animals that might be part of the research. In history, some bad things happened because there were no rules or people didn't follow them. For example, the Nazis in Germany did horrible tests on people during World War II. Now we have some big rules from all over the world, like the Nuremberg Code from 1947, to make sure everyone does research correctly. There are special groups in countries like the US, UK, and those in Europe that check that scientists are working in a way that is safe and fair to everyone. Research ethics started with doctors and their need to treat people rightly. Over time, these ideas grew and now include how we treat animals and even how we handle information in our research. Ethics are very important in all kinds of scientific work, not just medicine.

The personal is political
People say "the personal is political." This idea became very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. It started with the feminists, who are women fighting for equal rights. They wanted to change families and what people thought families should be like. This idea means that our personal lives are connected to politics. What happens at home or with our feelings is not just private. It can be part of bigger political problems. For example, if women are not happy being at home or taking care of children, it's not just their problem. It's a political issue because it's about how society treats women. Because of this idea, people started to think more about how everyday things could be unfair or political. Even things like love, being a parent, or who does the cleaning, can be important for politics. This thinking made a big difference. It helped people see that problems they thought were private actually needed big changes in laws and society to get better. Thanks to the idea "the personal is political," people noticed that everything in our lives can be part of politics.

Samuel Johnson's literary criticism
Samuel Johnson was a writer who had strong ideas about poetry and biographies. He liked poetry that was easy to understand and used everyday language. He did not like it when poets chose old or fancy words on purpose. Johnson thought the best poems had new and creative pictures in them. He also liked to write about feelings in his shorter poems. When he wrote about people's lives, he wanted to show the real story, even if it included bad things. This was different from others at the time who wanted to only show the good parts of someone's life.