Abstract

Stream of consciousness, as one of the most remarkable features in contemporary western literature, is the fruit of many writers including Katherine Mansfield, who is one of the explorers and founders. This paper aims to demonstrate and dissect Mansfield’s manipulation of the stream-of-consciousness technique by analyzing two pieces of her short stories, Life of Ma Parker and The Man without a Temperament. Her innovations are classified into four sorts in the paper, namely, interior monologue and free association, time montage, shifts of point of view and plotless stories with epiphany. On the detailed analysis of each part, it then concludes that Katherine Mansfield has introduced a brand new trend in the literary creation of short stories.

Key words: Katherine Mansfield, stream of consciousness, short stories

摘 要

意识流作为当代西方文学最显著的特色之一，是众多文豪共同的成果，其中就包括凯瑟琳•曼斯菲尔德这位探索者和创始者。本文通过分析凯瑟琳•曼斯菲尔德的两篇短篇小说《帕克大妈的一生》以及《没有脾气的男人》，旨在论证和剖析她对意识流技巧的运用。本论文将她对意识流技巧的革新归纳为四类，即：内心独白和自由联想、时间蒙太奇、视角转换和精神顿悟式的无情节小说。通过对每一部分细致的分析，本论文进而得出凯瑟琳•曼斯菲尔德引领了短篇小说创作的新风潮。

关键词：凯瑟琳•曼斯菲尔德；意识流；短篇小说

1.    Introduction
Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), an eminent writer of short stories from New Zealand, is one of the forerunners of modern short stories and western modernistic literature. Roger Robinson once alleged that Katherine Mansfield was a significant and indeed key figure in the 20th century literature. She changed the creation of English short stories and made tremendous contributions to modernism.
Born in a socially prominent family in Wellington, New Zealand and died in Fontainebleau of France at the age of 35, Katherine devoted her brief life to the creation of short stories. During her short and tragic life, she was haunted by loneliness and sickness, therefore her stories mainly covered misfortune, disillusionment and family or marriage matters. In 1911, her first collection of short stories In a German Pension got published and won praises from critics. Then the publication of another collection of short stories Bliss: and Other Stories in 1920 was a smash hit, marking her status in literary circles began to be recognized.