f Ghost texts in Alice Munro’s stories

This article aims to apply the concepts of ‘ghost scenarios’ and ‘ghost texts’ to Alice Munro’s short stories, a concept that Michel Charles introduced in the context of reader-response theory. Using ‘Gravel’, from Munro’s 2012 collection, as an exemplar, the article focuses on the role intratextuality plays in Munro’s oeuvre and its effect on readers. I propose to see previous stories that hover as subtexts as ‘ghost scenarios’ that haunt the Canadian short story writer’s fiction and induce ‘erratic readings’, in particular in stories where mysterious deaths occur. Ghost texts also increase uncertainty and induce niggling doubt, reinforcing the overall haunting effect that Munro’s stories often convey.