That is the question as the literary world debates Nobel laureate Alice Munro's work in the aftermath of her daughter's revelations
Alice Munro, the Canadian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013, died on May 13 this year at the age of 92. Two months after her death, Munro’s daughter, Andrea Skinner, disclosed in an essay in Toronto Star that her stepfather had sexually abused her for years—the first time when she was nine years old.
Skinner told her mother the truth when she was an adult, but Munro did not react with “concern or support”, but “as if she had learned of an infidelity”. Munro also continued to stay with her husband till his death. This revelation has sparked a global controversy on Munro’s complicity in her daughter’s abuse.
The literary world is now debating the impacts of a patriarchal system, the painful culture of silence in our society and Munro’s legacy.
In the latest issue, Outlook traces the ongoing debate of whether art can really be separated from the artist.