Katherine mansfield

(1888-1923)

Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on the 14th of October, 1888. Her father was a merchant. She received an education first in her own country, then in England. She left for London in 1908 to establish herself as a writer She was nineteen then and started her literaty career with a few sketches.

Her earliest volume, In a German Pension (1911), attracted the attention of the critics and the reading public.

The background and varied characters of these stories are almost all based on autobiographical facts.

During the years 1912-1914 Mansfield wrote stories for two London journals, Rhythm and The Blue Review. Most of the stories were based on New Zealand material.

The best story published at that tirne was A Birthday,

where she speaks about her own family The story is set in Wellington and the main character Andrew Binzer is a true-to-life portrait of her father Wellington here is so

accurately depicted that one can identify, even to-day, the

streets and the actual house in the story

During the year 1915 Katherine Mansfield wrote two of her best stories, Something Childish, but Very Natural and Indiscreet 1ourney. Here for the first time she showed a deep understanding of the inner world of her characters which later became the basis of all her mature work.

Towards the end of 1917 she fell ill with tuberculosis but continued to work hard. In the early 1920s appeared her best collections of stories- Bliss and Other Stories (1920) and The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922). In January 1923 she died at the age of 35.

Katherine Mansfield was a master of the psychological story. She wrote about the problems that showed the cruel­ ty and hypocrisy of the English bourgeois world. From the time of the publication of Bliss in 1920 the influence of A. Chekhov on her creative work was greatly discussed. Mansfield herself admitted the influence and even called herself "the English Anton Chekhov"

It should be noted, however, that it was not quite so as

"ihe English Anton Chekhov" did not achieve the greatness of her teacher in raising everyday problems and describing the contradictions of life.

Mansfield's first major theme is the woman alone in the world. The stories Lady's Maid, The Life of Ma Par­ ker, The Daughters of the Late Colonel are variations on

this theme.

Her second major theme is children in their relation with one another and with the adults in the family. Six­ pence, The Little Girl, The Doll's House and many other stories deal with this subject.

"Children are unaccountable little creatures", thus

Mansfield begins the story Sixpence and these words explain her interest and concern about children's souls.

THE GARDEN PARTY

Mansfield's success in presenting children springs from the fact that she portrayed them as seen through their own eyes. In the story The Garden Party Laura, a sensitive girl, the daughter of rich parents, is preparing for a party. Suddenly she finds herself faced with the darker part of life: death and grief in a nearby poor family. Her desire to stop the party because a man has been killed is called absurd by her parents. She feels with a child's intuition that compassion is not to be found in her own circle. She decides to talk to the workers who have come to put up large tents for the garden party. At first she seems awkward and tries to copy the behaviour of her mother, but immediately changes her tone in response to the easy and natural manner of the workmen. They become linked in her mind with the general sense of the beauty of the morning. She complains about the "absurd class distinctions" and thinks "why could not she have workmen for friends, rather than the silly boys she danced with"

The sensitiveness and childish naivety of Laura, who refuses to take part in the entertainment is contrasted with

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the rationality of her mother She almost convinces her daughter that her attitude is absurd. She tries to divert Laura's mind from the painful subject by giving her an attractive hat. Though at first sight the mother's decision not to stop the party seems more practical and sensible, the writer very artistically emphasises that the naive feelings of the girl are more humane than her mother's common sense.

The last question of the story remains unanswered. When Laura is on her way back from the dead man's house, her brother Laurie comes to meet her:" Isn't life",­ she stammered, "isn't life?" But what life was- she could not explain. No matter He quite understood: "Isn't it, darling?"- said Laurie"

The following extract (abridged) from The Garden Par­ ty reveals both Laura's and her mother's attitude to­ wards the grief of their neighbours.

"Mother, a man's been killed", began Laura. "Not in the garden)" interrupted her mother, "No, no!"

"Oh, what a fright you gave me!" Mrs Sheridan sighed with relief and look of! the big hat and held it on her knees.

"But listen, mother", said Laura. Breathless, half choking she told

the dreadful story. "01 course, we can't have our party, can we?" she pleaded. "The band and everybody arriving. They'd hear us, mother; they're nearly neighbours!"

"But, my dear child, use your common sense. It's only by accident

we've heard of it. II someone had died there normally- and I can't understand how they keep alive in those poky little holes- we should still be having our party, shouldn't we?"

Laura had to say "yes" to that, but she felt it was all wrong. She sat

down on her mother's sola and pinched the cushion frill. "Mother, isn't it really terribly heartless of us?" she asked ...

This lime Mrs. Sheridan lost patience...

"You are being very absurd, Laura", she said coldly. "People like that don't expect sacrifices !rom us. And it's not very sympathetic to spoil everybody's enjoyment as you're doing now"

Mansfield's characters are mostly well-to-do people and the poor are generally introduced for the sake of con­ trast. Usually the writer tries to avoid sharp social con­ flicts; however, in some cases we find a critical approach to bourgeois reality Thus her story The Cup of Tea which in itself is a small masterpiece of the short story form, shows

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the social contradictions of the bourgeois society of the day.

Depth of perception, genuine knowledge of man's psychology make Katherine Mansfield one of the popular

short story tellers in world literature. Mansfield's lan­

guage is laconic and precise.

I. How can !he situation in English lileralure u[ \he 20:; be charac·

lcrizcd)

2. Why Mansfield call her "the English Chckhov"

3. What were \he two rnain thernl'. o[ Mansfield's stories)

4. What The Garden Party abouP

LITERATURE OF THE 1930s

At the end of 1929 a general economic crisis occurred, which lasted up to 1934. It brought unemployment, hunger and misery Class contradictions became especially sharp and obvious.

The complicated political situation in Europe, especially in Germany (Hitler came to power in 1933), could not but

affect Britain both politically and economically It was then that "The British Fascist Union" was organized and financed by British industrialists. The broad masses of

England reacted negatively against it. Then came the Civil War in Spain, and English workers showed their solidarity with Spanish republicans. They organised protest meetings and refused to load <Hms for the fascists.

The 1930s were years in which British writers also had to make a choice. Progressive literary people were fighting against modernism and defending the tradition of realism.

Richard Aldington, John Boynton Priestley and Archibald Cronin were the writers who together with the older gener­ ation continued the realistic tradition in literature.

For the first time in Britain a group of writers appeared

whose work was influenced by marxist ideas.

The ideological leader of that group was a communist

whose name was R a I ph Fox ( 1910-1937). He was a pub­ licist, a historian and a literary critic. Though he lived a short life, (he was killed in Spain) everything he wrote, especially his book. The Nouel and the People ( 1937), is of great importance for those who study the evolution of realism and of the contemporary English novel.

The 1930s also saw an ever-increasing interest among English writers and publicists in the USSR and Soviet literature. The works of Sholokhov, Furmanov, Fadeev, V. Ivanov and others were translated into English.

RICHARD ALDINGTON

(1892-1962)

.Among the younger generation of writers who carried on

'the tradition of England's great realists was Richard

Aldington.

He was born in 1892 in Hampshire and educated at Dover College and the University of London. In 1913 he became literary editor of the journal The Egoist. At that time he also joined the "Bloomsbury" group. His poetry, written under the influence of imagism, however, was

rather obscure, at times meaningless. In 1916, at the age of

twenty-four, he joined the Army and fought in World War I as a private in the infantry; later he became an officer He was soon demobilized for he was badly wounded. For several years he worked for The Times Literary Supplement and made his living as a critic and translator from Italian and Latin. During this time he managed to publish four volumes of poetry which attracted the attention of the leading literary circles. However soon he dropped writing verse to devote all his attention to prose.

World War I greatly influenced his world outlook and

he came to regard the duty of a writer in a new light. He broke with the decadents and came to appreciate only those works which were written "out of man's guts" and showed life as it really was. His hatred of wars was vividly reflected in his early works. The best examples of these are Death of a Hero (I 929), The Colonel's Daughter (1931) and All Men are Enemies (1933). TllPSe novels sound

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_{as a warning against the danger of a new war.}

Aldington's other important works are: Images Old and New (1915), Very Heaven (1937).

Aldington didn't live much in his own country. His last years were spent in America and France. His passionate, truthful, anti-war novels still live and inspire his readers to struggle against injustice and militarism.

DEATH OF A HER.O

Death of a Hero is Aldington's first and most im­ portant novel. He finished it, however, only in 1929, though he had planned to write it straight after World War I.

After World War I the-called "lost generation" ap­ peared in Europe and European literature. The mood of the young people who belonged to this "lost generation" was that of profound pessimism and disillusionment. They had fought in World War I hoping to find their lost ideals; instead of which they only suffered from its aftermath.

In 1929 writers of different nationalities presented the readers with anti-war works (E. Hemingway- A Farewell to Arms, Eric Maria Remarque- All Quiet on the Western Front). The war theme became central for Aldington.

In the novel Death of a Hero we hear the angry pas­ sionate voice of the writer condemning society and the war it unleashed. The novel is a tragic, satiric, lyric poem about the war and its demoralizing effect on people.

The beginning of the novel is rather original, for it starts with the death of the main character- George Winterbourne. The prologue shows to the reader that the tragic death of the hero was not at all heroic. It becomes clear from the novel that Winterbourne's whole young life had been a failure- his misunderstandings with his pa­ rents were continuous, his marriage with Elisabeth was not a happy one, his relations with his girl-friend were unpre­ dictable. His disappointment with his private life was accompanied by disillusionment with art to which he had devoted himself. The reason for this can be seen in the satirical portraits of the "servants of art" who did not understand it but only made a profit out of it.

Seeking for an escape from his problems Winterbourne decided to volunteer for the front. But the atrocities of the war, the inhumane relations between the higher and lower ranks in the army, his own misery and loneliness drove him

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to look for death under the enemy bullets. Here is a pas­

sage taken from the novel Death of a Hero.

... And then the Germans began a steady, systematic gas bombard­

ment of all the ruined villages in the advanced area ...

The gas bombardment went on until dawn, and then ceased. Winter­ bourne fell asleep, with his gasmask just off his face. Hilhcrlo they had slept with the box respirator slung on a nail or piled with lhe other equi­ pment; alter the experience of this and the subsequent nights, they al­ ways slept with the respirator on their chests and the mask ready to slip on immediately.

The heavies began again soon after it was light. Winlerbourne was awakened by one which crashed just outside his cellar He lay on the floor for a long time listening to the zwiiiing, crash, of the shells. He heard two ruined houses clatter to the ground under direct hils, and wondered if the cellars had held firm. They hadn't. But fortunately they happened to be unoccupied. Presently the German batteries switched off and began bombarding some artillery about five hundred yards to the left. Winter­ bourne profited by the lull to wash. He ran out of the cellar in his shirt­ sleeves and gas mask, with the canvas bucket in which he washed; and found that a shell had smashed the pump outside his billet. He knew there was another about three hundred yards to the right, although he had never been there...

The peculiarity of Aldington's style is that the writer makes the reader see the war as cameramen do. With explicit details the author shows the facial expression of the fighting men, the destroyed villages and fields. Aldington is a master of battle-scene descriptions. His language abounds in military terms; it is expressive and dynamic and helps to create realistic characters and pictures.

Aiding-ton is a follower of the great English traditions in language. We can trace many of his devices to Dickens and Thackeray. The merit of Aldington's realism lies in the presentation of a vast social background, in a sharp, satirical approach towards bourgeois reality.

I. What can you say about the progressive writers of the 30s? 2. When did the "lost generation" appear in English literature? Speak of Al­ dington, as a typical representative of the generation. 3. What was the fate of Aldington's hero, George Winterbourne?