Life and Work of Katherine Mansfield The author of The Garden party and other Stories

Birthplace

She was born in New Zealand ( ) in a wealthy family. Her father, Harold Beauchamp was a self promoted financier who was elected as the governor of the bank of New Zealand. Her mother was an upper class woman who was born and brought up with strict Victorians values. She obviously wanted to enforce those values on her children. Conflict of Values: within and out family.

Mansfield started writing at an early age and she turned out to be a good writer. Her journals and reflective writings were published in High School Reporter and Wellington High School Magazine. This is the same school she went to. She was also the editor for the little mag. in her school. She also had interest in playing instruments. She was a good cellist. This lead to her first affair with a musician cum and her trainer Arnold Trowell. Mansfield was probably just a teenager then. As a result it did not last very long. Keeping with the tradition of the wealthy families Mansfield was sent to London for her graduation in 1903 in Queens College along with her sisters. Now,this experiences turned out to be different for the Mansfield sisters.

London back in 1903 was the center for art and culture for the European progressive lifestyle and a Mecca for the Modernists artists. In many ways, it was remarkably different and tolerant towards changes and artistic freedom than many other cities and of course than New Zealand. Katherine felt more at home here. She resumed playing cello and writing but decided to take cello playing as her professional. London gave her the freedom and opportunity she needed to excel as an artist and a human. Besides the school curriculum, Katherine kept writing and playing cello and later became the editor for the college magazine.

Why do we put her under the label ‘Modern’? Mansfield was courageous, self willed, and ahead of her time. The artistic exposure and nurturing environment of London developed Mansfield into a free spirited young woman who wanted to live on her own and not yield to the expectations of society. And by expectations we refer to the traditional idea of getting married and having children and staying within the boundary of social class. Mansfield on the other hand, wanted to earn and pay for her self and she was not yet ready to be married. Most importantly, she wanted to be an artist which was pretty much an outrageous thought for a girl coming from a small town. She invented her own style with knee length, comfortable skirts and a bob hair cut. This was later largely known as the Flappers. She struggled to be self dependant and wanted to follow her dreams instead of following a life dictated by her family. She did not care about the strict code decreed for women and was often misunderstood by her peers and mostly by her family.

Flappers Flappers

Personal Life: Because of her alterative lifestyle, her personal and emotional life saw many ups and downs She met Garnet Trowell, Arnold’s younger brother and resumed the unresolved attachment with the elder brother. However, this was not approved by Trowell family. Became pregnant and later married George Bowden, a music teacher at a school. But they were separated immediately. She was taken to Germany by her mother to put her out of the misery. This was a period of poverty and hardship for her. By this time, she was already an outsider and cause of shame for her family. She was eventually cut off from the family will too. She did not have any friends or anyone to support her. Wrote In a German Pension on the account of her troubles.

Back to New Zealand in But she could not find anything to attach to. Return to London in 1908 and never to return. However, this turned out to be a productive year for her literary career. She befriended Virginia Woolf, D H Lawrence and many other emerging modernist, experiential writers. She joined the Bloomsbury circle. This was a famous literary circle hosted by Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard Woolf. They used to invite all the struggling writers who wanted to come out from Victorian writing style and invent something new. Prominent writers like D H Lawrence, E M Forster, painter Vanessa Bell and many more.

Bloomsbury circle

The avant-garde (from French, "advance guard" or "vanguard", literally "fore- guard") are people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics. Started writing for an Avant Garde magazine The New Age and later for Rhythm. Met her long term husband John Middleton Murry who was also the editor of an aspiring Avant Garde magazine Rhythm. This magazine sought to publish the works of young artists, who wanted write something new and could not find publishers. The first story that she sent to Rhythm was a murder mystery. It showed the dark and degenerate side of human mind which was pretty new.

Later life Growing detachment from her family. Her relationship with Murry saw many turns but they remained lifelong friends. However, the following year came with a event that changed her life forever. The world already started to experience the havoc of World War I. The death news of her much beloved and younger brother Leslie reached her family. It left a permanent mark on Mansfield. Blown to bits!" That is how Katherine Mansfield, still in shock just a few days after learning of her brother's death in the war, described him to a friend. Twenty- one-year-old Leslie "Chummie" Beauchamp had been stationed in France for less than a month when on 7 October 1915, as he was giving a hand grenade demonstration, a defective grenade blew up in his hand with a force so strong it killed both himself and his sergeant.

Leslie’s death worked as an uniting force for Mansfield. For all these years, we did not see her missing New Zealand or her family. But now, she is continuously drawn closer to her memories of her childhood. The Garden Party was a reaction to both Leslie’s death and World War I ( ). She began to take refuge in nostalgic reminiscences of their childhood in New Zealand. By the remembered stream my brother stands Waiting for me with berries in his hands... "These are my body. Sister, take and eat.

Mansfield was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent her last years seeking increasingly unorthodox cures for her tuberculosis. Died out of Tuberculosis in Paris. January 9, 1923, Fontainebleau, France. Much of her best works were published after her death by her husband Tom Murry. The Dove's Nest, a collection of her fabulous stories which she wrote came out in Garden party and other stories include issues of growing up, adolescence, innocence, experience, individuality, values, society, family, death, class, gender. But most importantly it talks of the terror of growing up, experiencing new things and having an opinion on them.

Literary Traditions Mostly wrote short fictions. Female characters triumph in her stories and they achieve heroic stature at the cost of their awakening. Laura, Miss Brill. Biographical elements. Growing up, freedom, breaking the code, loneliness and experiencing Epiphany. Narrative Technique: Written with an intimate, Personal tone and in stream of consciousness.

What is Stream of Consciousness and is “The Garden party a Stream of consciousness narrative”? Also, what is Epiphany?