ATS1903 Lecture 6: Katherine Mansfield
14 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Katherine Mansfield's Short Stories
Secondary criticisms
Marginality
• Oxford dictionary definition of 'marginal'
• All apply to Mansfield in some way
Mansfield Timeline
Her biography is closely related to her works
Mansfield wrote while she was ill, once wrote that she wrote her stories as fast as possible for fear
of death before her stories could be completed
Mansfield's Choice in Genre in relation to the Time
Liminal OED Definition (to relate to the idea of marginality)
Margin becomes the centre/periphery becomes centre
Character of Laura
• Suspended between adult and child
• Different to her class
• Symbolic of a 'growing class'?
Criticism of "The Fly"
• One of her final stories (second last?)
• New criticism is fairly old (used since WW)
• Tempts us to read the story as if there was another deeper hidden layer, but immediately
stops the reader from doing so
• Free indirect style (can't say it belongs to a character, hovers between first and third) in the
introduction; ellipsis area, it did one good to see him, still going strong, at the helm
• Don't do a good job of explaining why
• Tether on the verge of knowing the characters, but also being distant. As soon as the reader
feels like they're getting to know the character, the distance is opened again
• Latent message of war, boss - general, ink - mud of trenches, act 4 scene 1 of King Lear
• Mansfield was reading/loved Shakespeare
• Story about the difficulty of writing about life itself (realistically portraying life)
• Ink-writing, boss-writer (blots out life), writing life about the way it looked and felt to her
Garden Party
• Act of mourning
• Loss of Mansfield brother while she wrote this
• "blown to bits" "dotted all over the field"
• Brings the body of her little brother back together
• Restores the physical integrity of the male corpse
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Document Summary
Marginality: oxford dictionary definition of "marginal, all apply to mansfield in some way. Her biography is closely related to her works. Mansfield wrote while she was ill, once wrote that she wrote her stories as fast as possible for fear of death before her stories could be completed. Mansfield"s choice in genre in relation to the time. Liminal oed definition (to relate to the idea of marginality) Suspended between adult and child: different to her class. Free indirect style (can"t say it belongs to a character, hovers between first and third) in the introduction; ellipsis area, it did one good to see him, still going strong, at the helm. Don"t do a good job of explaining why: tether on the verge of knowing the characters, but also being distant. As soon as the reader feels like they"re getting to know the character, the distance is opened again.
