A Butlerian Reading of Gender Narratology and Power Discourse in Alice Munro’s The View from Castle Rock and Fariba Vafi’s Razi dar Koucheh-ha

Inspired by Foucault, Judith Butler suggests that the structure of power is constructed and socially interconnected in a way that women are on its lowest layer. The overt and covert power systems distributed in the society deprive women of their rights. Adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, the present paper studies Alice Munro’s The View from Castle Rock and Fariba Vafi’s Razi dar Koucheh-ha (A Secret in the Allies). The findings of the article demonstrate that Munro and Vafi expose complicated dynamic networks, revealing how women are driven back through stereotypical women’s affairs. In a straightforward narration, Munro provides explanations and signs of power discourse in the lower strata of the society, inspiring women to focus on their rights. Vafi discusses the boundaries of male domination. According to Munro, literature is one of the areas which redefine hidden social and civil conflicts that have political, cultural, and even theological dimensions. In Vafi’s work, this is made possible by demonstrating the skills, strengths, and abilities of women, both mentally and socially. The feminist mindset of Munro and Vafi in these collections is compatible with what is known as the three waves of feminism, but owes much to the feminist reflections of the post-structuralist scholar Judith Butler who is associated with the third wave of feminism.