Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)

A selective list of online literary criticism for the twentieth-century British (New Zealander) short-story writer Katherine Mansfield, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars and articles published in peer-reviewed sources

main page | 20th-century literature | modernist fiction and modernism | 20th-century women writers | about literaryhistory.com

introduction & biography

"Mansfield, Katherine." Extended biography of Katherine Mansfield, from the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. "No other New Zealand figure has troubled or challenged so many writers to irreverent, defiant or merely exploitative responses." New Zealand Book Council.

"Katherine Mansfield." An encyclopedia-type biography of Katherine Mansfield, from the Poetry Foundation.

"Katherine Mansfield." A web site from the National Library of New Zealand, which has the world's most significant collection of items related to Mansfield, including her unpublished letters and journals, portraits and personal belongings.

The Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society. A web site that includes biographical information and photos, and sustains the New Zealand house in which Mansfield was born.

Smith, Angela. "Katherine Mansfield." A substantial introduction to Katherine Mansfield from the Literary Encyclopedia 30 March 2001 [subscription service].

literary criticism

Brock, Richard. "Disapprobation, Disobedience and the Nation in Katherine Mansfield's New Zealand Stories." On recurring themes in "How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped" and other of Mansfield's stories that are set in New Zealand. Journal of New Zealand Literature 24, 1 (2006) pp 58-72 [first page only, blurred].

Dilworth, Thomas. "Monkey business: Darwin, displacement, and literary form in Katherine Mansfield's 'Bliss.'" Studies in Short Fiction Spring 1998.

Henstra, Sarah. "Looking the Part: Performative Narration in Djuna Barnes's Nightwood and Katherine Mansfield's 'Je Ne Parle Pas Francais.'" Twentieth Century Literature 46, 2 (Summer 2000) pp 125-49.

Mitchell, J. Lawrence. "Katherine Mansfield and the Aesthetic Object." On Mansfield's treatment of certain everyday objects, particularly the "little lamp" in "The Doll's House," and their meaning for her stories. Journal of New Zealand Literature 22 (2004) pp 32-54 [first page only, blurred].

Murray, Heather. "Katherine Mansfield and her British Critics: It There a 'Heart' in Mansfield's Fiction?" On Mansfield's moral questioning, and accusations from some of her readers of "heartlessness," in "The Prelude," "Miss Brill," "The Doll's House," "Bliss," and other stories. Journal of New Zealand Literature 6 (1988) pp 99-118 [first page only, blurred].

Schofield, Dennis. "Beyond 'The Brain of Katherine Mansfield': the radical potentials and recuperations of second-person narrative." Style Spring 1997.

Smith, Angela. "Katherine Mansfield and Rhythm." How Mansfield's writing for the magazine Rhythm, and her fellow writers at that magazine, influenced the development of her style. Journal of New Zealand Literature 21 (2003) pp 102-21 [first page only, blurred].

Waldron, Philip. "Katherine Mansfield's Journal." Waldron examines the changes in Katherine Mansfield's journal that her husband, John Middleton Murry, made before he published it in 1927 and 1954. Twentieth Century Literature 20, 1 (Jan. 1974) pp 11-18 [first page only, blurred].

Ware, Tracy. A review of Rhoda B. Nathan, ed., Critical Essays on Katherine Mansfield. Studies in Short Fiction Summer 1994.

Ware, Tracy. A review of Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott, eds., The Collected Letters Of Katherine Mansfield. Volume Four: 1920-1921, (Clarendon Press 1996). Studies in Short Fiction Winter 1998.

Ware, Tracy. A review of Roger Robinson, ed., In From the Margin (Louisiana State UP 1994) which addresses the growth of Mansfield's reputation. Notes the reviewer, "Katherine Mansfield was once regarded as a minor writer whose romantic short life overshadowed her fiction: 'Her story was better known that her stories.'" Studies in Short Fiction Winter 1995.

main page | 20th-century literature | modernist fiction and modernism | 20th-century women writers | about literaryhistory.com

1998-2012 by Jan Pridmore