Katherine Mansfield and the Bloomsbury Group

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The New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield associated intimately with many members of the Bloomsbury group, but her literary aesthetics placed her at a distance from the artistic works of the group. With chapters written by leading international scholars, Katherine Mansfield and the Bloomsbury Group explores this conflicted relationship. Bringing together biographical and critical studies, the book examines Mansfields relationships personal and literary with such major Modernist figures as Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley and Walter de la Mare as well as the ways in which her work engaged with and reacted against Bloomsbury. In this way the book reveals the true extent of Mansfields wider influence on 20th-century modernist writing.

Reviews

Katherine Mansfield: A Fauvist, Colonial Outsider Encounters Bloomsbury stood out in the volume for its clear articulation and solid theorization of the role played by Mansfields colonial origins in her representations of perception. Gerri Kimber also argues compellingly for a reexamination of the relationship between Mansfield and Aldous Huxley in light of their repeated fictional representations of each other. Ruchi Mundejas essay on Mansfields critical representations of the imperial consumerism that underlay Bloomsburys bohemian revisions of domestic space makes a strong contribution to the developing body of work on modernist domesticity. * Virginia Woolf Miscellany *
For the most part, Mansfields literary reputation has revolved around two things: her mastery of the modernist short story and her contentious relationship with Virginia Woolf (Woolf frequentlyand unfortunatelytends to subsume Mansfield). As these essays point out, there is much more to say. The collection opens with an examination of the emotional and professional complexities of Mansfield and Woolfs relationship viewed via disparate notions of hospitality. This engaging essay serves as the springboard for an exploration of Mansfield and Bloomsbury: to be specific, part 1 looks at Mansfield and the peripheral figures of Bloomsbury (Aldous Huxley, T. S. Eliot, Walter de la Mare, Millar Dunning, and W. L. George), and part 2 looks at Mansfield as peripheral to Bloomsbury. Gems include essays on Mansfields (and Woolfs) literary criticism that showcase the symbiosis between criticism and creativity. Including essays by both renowned Mansfield scholars and new voices in this field, this collection reiterates Bloomsburys influence on the artistic growth and mentoring capabilities of one of the most important modernist writers of the 20th century. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * CHOICE *
Provide[s] rich new pickings for Mansfield scholars and Bloomsbury devotees alike. * Times Literary Supplement *
An extremely helpful collection of articles on the mutual influence and interaction of Mansfield with the emerging artists from this turbulent period. * The Heythrop Journal *
This wide-ranging collection of essays makes fresh forays into the interstices of well-travelled literary territory, escorting readers to familiar topoi like Bloomsbury and Garsington Manor to discover new insights through intimate portrayals of their inhabitants and visitors. Katherine Mansfield is both object of study and muse in this endeavor, providing satirical perspectives on the social groups and gatherings which so often made her feel like an outsider, and inspiring the imaginatively sympathetic prose of an outstanding group of scholars devoted to celebrating her work. * Rishona Zimring, Professor of English, Lewis & Clark College *
An inspiring and very engaging collection of essays from many of todays most outstanding Mansfield specialists alongside some of the most promising younger scholars in the field of Modernist studies...This volume offers the most convincing assessment to date of Katherine Mansfields vibrant involvement in numerous Bloomsbury partnerships and literary collaborations. It will be figuring on all recommended reading lists for students of modernism and Bloomsbury London. * Professor Claire Davison-Pegon, Professor of Modernist Literature, Universit Sorbonne Nouvelle *
This intriguing collection of essays explores the subtle networks of affiliation between Katherine Mansfield and other figures on the fringes of the Bloomsbury group. The essays shed new light on the way in which those on the margin defined themselves against the values of the Bloomsberries and also illuminate Mansfields ambivalent status within the literary marketplace. Through their fine-grained analyses of relations between Mansfield and figures such as Aldous Huxley and Walter de la Mare, the essays significantly extend our understanding of the historical and cultural valences of Mansfields fiction. * Clare Hanson, Professor of Twentieth Century Literature, University of Southampton, UK *
Katherine Mansfield and the Bloomsbury Group understands one of the most vital British twentieth-century fiction writers as a working, responsive artist embedded within the matrices of many different kinds of modernisms. This collection importantly situates her in terms not only of Bloomsbury, but also of Garsington, of the fauvists and Post-Impressionists, and of the experimental and established journals of the London publishing scene. This is a weighty collection of intelligent and fluent essays that helps deepen and flesh out our understanding of Katherine Mansfield among her multiple artistic milieux. What emerges is the portrait of a writer substantively engaged in many ways in the radical breakthroughs of an excitingly transformative literary culture. * Jay Dickson, Professor of English and Humanities, Reed College, USA *

Author Bio

Todd Martin is Professor of English at Huntington University, USA. He is Membership Secretary for the Katherine Mansfield Society and co-editor of Katherine Mansfield and World War One (2014), Katherine Mansfield and Translation (2015), and Katherine Mansfield and Psychology (2016).