Study Guide_ The Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield

Introduction

• Contrast between Katherine Mansfield and Edgar Allan Poe's short stories.

• Poe's stories:

  • "The Purloined Letter" (1844), "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846).

  • Influenced by realism, romanticism, gothic.

• Mansfield's stories:

  • "At the Bay", "The Garden Party", "The Daughters of the Late Colonel" (1922 collection).

  • Modernist style, characterized by a break with past traditions.

  • Many stories lack Poe’s idea of "unity of effect".

Modernism

• Modernist artists and writers as exiles within cultural centers.

• Mansfield's background:

  • From New Zealand, lived in Europe (London, Paris).

  • Group of modernists (Conrad, Joyce, Eliot, Lawrence) shared a sense of alienation.

• Modernism entails:

  • Formal revolution in literary style.

  • Ideological revolution challenging traditional values (class, race, gender, etc).

The Modernist Short Story

• Notable modernist short story writers: Joyc,e Lawrence, Woolf, Mansfield.

• Shared qualities (not all present in every story):

  • Stream of consciousness

  • Free indirect speech

  • Epiphany

  • Plotlessness, Disunity

  • Impressionism over realism

  • Suspicion of truth and overall meaning

  • Questioning social values

  • Disillusionment post-World War I

Mansfield’s Short Stories

• Simon During's observations on Mansfield's writing:

  • Short stories as reflections of individual consciousness rather than geography.

  • Three sub-genres of Mansfield's stories:

    1. Switch stories: sudden mood or perception inversions.

    2. Brutal stories: regressions from civility to selfishness.

    3. Childhood stories: interactions between adult and child perspectives.

  • Disconnection between characters, highlighting the inability to communicate effectively.

  • Stories do not impose moral judgments.

Gender Roles in Mansfield’s Short Stories

• Focus on women’s positions in contemporary society across three stories:

  • "At the Bay" and "The Garden Party": colonial New Zealand.

  • "The Daughters of the Late Colonel": early 20th-century London.

• "At the Bay":

  • Features varied female roles: Linda (mother/wife), Mrs. Fairfield (grandmother), Beryl (spinster).

  • Linda feels freedom when Stanley leaves but is burdened by motherhood.

  • Beryl yearns for security in relationships but is conflicted in her desires.