On The Feminist Themes Of Mansfield's Girl-Child Stories

At the turn of the 20th century, Katherine Mansfield accomplished her fiction in Europe but mainly about New Zealand with the fine genre of short story and gained world wide popularity with her five volumes of stories. Inheriting the Victorian tradition, she had portrayed a number of ordinary female images with subtle observation and penetrating insight; she paid much attention to women's subordination to man and women's conflict with patriarchy in Western societies; usually she took the view and psyche of girl-child to observe and attack the corrupted patriarchy with"a cry against corruption".This thesis aims at interpretating themes of Mansfield's girl-child stories, including those with European and New Zealand background, from the feminist perspective with parallel analyses of her growing experiences and girl-child characters."A cry against corruption"was spoken by Mansfield herself while she had suffered a lot for the literary dream. Sometimes this"cry"may be only some expressions of dissatisfaction or hatred of female subordination in patriarchy; sometimes it means the female children's inability of changing the society but weeping. Anyhow, this feminist"cry"could be found throughout her girl-child stories. Her paradoxical attitudes towards patriarchy were changing from severe cynicism in Europe stories, moderate rebellion, eager running away in the early New Zealand stories to some passive submission and confession in the late New Zealand stories. Her attack and struggle with the dominant male power followed the mainstream feminist movement at that time, though because of deteriorating health and loss of brother in the War she became milder in tone gradually.After all, Mansfield's girl-child stories are strong in feminist terms. She had been conscious of her female identity and worried about the miserable lives of women, but an ambivalent attitude towards the opportunities afforded by feminism persisted throughout Mansfield's life: torn between a desire to reject the conventional feminine role and a desire to accept it. Thus continuous researches show how far from being merely imitative, she had transformed the short story in English and contributed in essential ways to feminism. Mansfield has rebelled against the male-dominated culture in pejorative satire with female viewpoint and female comprehending; to some extent she has subverted the authority of the phallocentric speech.