Seite 80 [80]
NIKOLA TUTEK
Cultural romanticism in modern literature can, in my opinion, in some
instances, be compared to positive discrimination in social studies. Hence,
cultural romanticism is often based on positive (benevolent) prejudice.
Such romanticism, which overemphasizes various features of greatness in a
certain culture, strongly affects the guality of literary work while leaving the
described, that is, appropriated culture distant and intact. Ihese claims can
find fertile ground especially in the analysis of "Ihe Albanian Virgin".
In his literary works, Lord Byron glorified Greek culture and people and
his biased description of the idyllic Greek society escapes scientific scrutiny
simply because it was written in times when this was a sort of a stylistic
standard. What Munro offers in "Ihe Albanian Virgin" is close to idealization;
many of the idyllic scenes of village life in the story are written in a “neo¬
Byronic” style. Interestingly, Lord Byron is mentioned in “The Albanian
Virgin” in a humorous depiction of the narrator’s attempt to write a thesis.
This might be seen as Munro’s attempt at (self-)irony (regarding Charlotte’s re¬
interpretation of the story) or as an expression of parallelism in the narrator’s
destiny: unable to write a thesis on Mary Shelley and related themes from
the period of Romanticism, the narrator gets a chance to witness a romantic
Byronic story in her real life.
“FIVE POINTS”: ENFORCING THE COMMON DENOMINATOR
Alice Munro’s “Five Points” was published in the collection of short prose
Friend of my Youth in 1990, four years before the publication of “The Albanian
Virgin”, with which it shares many similarities. Just like parts of “The Albanian
Virgin’, the plot of “Five Points” is set in Victoria, British Columbia. Both
stories feature intertwined sections of the main and the auxiliary narrations,
and both stories end with a revelation from the auxiliary narration, which is
crucial for understanding the main narration. Furthermore, in both stories,
the auxiliary narration is retold by one of the characters in the main narration.
Finally, both stories contain elements of cultural re-interpretation.
The main narration of the story is about Brenda, a married family woman
who is having an affair with Neil. Only the auxiliary narration, retold by
Neil, contains elements of literary cultural re-interpretation. Neil remembers
his childhood and the candy store run by a Croatian family. The Croatian
family had a daughter, a thirteen-year-old girl, who was not blessed with
good looks but was assertive enough to pay young boys to have sex with her.
Maria’s addiction to sex finally leads to the bankruptcy of the store, and the
family leaving the town. At the core of both narrations is Munro’s delicate
examination of the power games in male-female relationships.
+ 78 +