摘 要

凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德是一个文化女性主义者，是100多年来新西兰最有影响的作家之一。凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德在她的作品里塑造了很多女性角色，擅长于使用叙事技巧,尤其是内心独白。本论文将对《一杯茶》、《幸福》、《花园茶会》三部短篇小说进行分析，探讨其中女性自我意识的转变。在凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德的小说中，女性人物经历了从忽视现实到意识现实到躲避现实的变化，曼斯菲尔德试图唤醒女性的自我意识，激励她们去追求新生活。

关键词：凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德；女权主义；自我意识

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Demonstration 4

2.1 “A Cup of Tea”: Ignoring the reality 4

2.1.1 Before Change: Warm-hearted amp; Confident 4

2.1.2 After Change: Mendicant amp; Jealous 5

2.2 “Bliss”: Bewaring the reality 6

2.2.1 Before Change: Motherly amp; Hopeful 7

2.2.2 After Change: Disillusioned amp;Challenging 8

2.3 “The Garden Party”: Escaping from the reality 9

2.3.1 Before Change: Kindhearted amp; Innocent 9

2.3.2 After Change: Self-deceptive amp; Class-conscious 10

3. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 13

Bibliography 14

Changes of Female Consciousness in Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories

1. Introduction

Katherine Mansfield (Oct. 14, 1888- Jan. 9,1923) was a famous female writer in New Zealand. As one of the most influential writers and the founder of New Zealand Literature, Katherine Mansfield concentrated on short story writing. “Technically, Katherine Mansfield did the same in short story writing as Joyce and Woolf did in the novel.” (Gordon 50) Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1888, Katherine Mansfield’s family was a wealthy colonial middle-class one. Her father was a successful self-made businessman. However, Mansfield received compulsory education together with the children of washerwomen, drivers, dairymen in her young age. Even though Mansfield was born in a wealthy family, she was exposed to the bottom of the society from childhood. In 1903, Mansfield and her sisters were sent to Queen’s College in London, which was an advanced institution for young women. Mansfield was especially talented in writing and had published some sketches in her school’s magazines. “London appeared to her as the living center of all artistic and intellectual life.” (Alpers 4) For Mansfield, London was the spiritual place that would make her dream of being a writer come true.

Mansfield was precocious and she always emphasized emotional life. Her principle was experiencing life in spite of costs. Mansfield’s first love was her meeting with a music teacher who was 11 years older than her. In Mansfield’s view, this romantic meeting was completely normal and healthy, but this caused large panic in her family. It became the beginning that led to Mansfield drifting apart from her family and breaking up finally. The music teacher chased Mansfield crazily, and after several weeks, they got married. However, the marriage was not out of love, Mansfield’s true love was a violinist she met at the age of 13. On the very night they met, she left without notice and followed her true love. Then Mansfield was pregnant, and she lived in Belgium and Germany. Unfortunately, Mansfield had a miscarriage and her health suffered a lot. The love Mansfield expected so much ended up, but artistic sublimation replaced frustration in her life. In 1911, In A German Pension, Mansfield’s first collection of short stories, came out. Henceforth, Mansfield made her living by many different ways and experienced several loving stories.

In 1911, Mansfield met and fell in love with John Middleton Murry, the editor of Rhythm. Finally, they got married in May, 1918. Although Murry could give her spiritual and mental peace for her artistic creation, they soon lost happiness of marriage. Many works of love and marriage reflected her complicated experiences and feelings, such as A Dill Pickle(1917), The Man without a Temperament(1921), Something Childish but Very Natural(1924). Unfortunately, Mansfield was infected with tuberculosis in her last years when her artistry has reached maturity. She lived in South France, Italy and Switzerland to find good climate for recovery from her illness. Without literary friends, her husband or family, Mansfield felt very lonely and created many excellent works about her own roots and her childhood. Bliss and Other Stories was published in 1920, which established her reputation as a famous short story writer. In 1922, The Garden Party and Other Stories came out. This period became the highest point of her literary career. On January 9, 1923, Katherine Mansfield died of a hemorrhage of the lung in France, at a tragically young age of thirty-four.