The major concept that characterizes the fiction of Alice Munro is that of paradox, a concept which also characterizes the vision of photographic realists. Munro's fiction centres on the paradox of the familiar and the exotic as well as on that of movement and stasis; that is, Munro defamiliarizes everyday objects, and she also creates a meeting place where motion and stillness can unite -- just as in a photograph. Thus, by fusing these disparate elements into a synthesis which is paradox, Munro brings her intuition to the surface, and she keeps it there, bonding into a single entity photographer, camera, time, and the objective world.
