“Anything Was Possible”: Gaps, Hypotheses, and Multiple Meanings in Alice Munro's “The Bear Came Over the Mountain”

Through a literary analysis of Alice Munro’s short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” (1999), the article explores the theme of indeterminacy and gaps in the text and their impact on readers’ interpretation. Drawing on the concepts of Iser’s implied reader, Kukkonen’s embodied reader, and Abbot’s acceptance of unknowability, the article reveals how Munro engages readers in constructing hypotheses and continuously challenges them by introducing new insights, prompting revisions of interpretations. By exploring the deliberate indeterminacies in Munro’s narrative, this study aims to elucidate the interplay between authorial intention and the reader’s interpretive agency. The article also mentions the film adaptation of Munro’s short story by the Canadian director Sarah Polley, Away from Her (2006), and highlights the use of indeterminacy within the visual medium.