"A Cat Among Tigers"

This thesis adopts psychoanalytical approach to explore the women's fear in Katherine Mansfield's short stories. On the basis of exploration of Mansfield's letters, diaries and biographies and study of the text of Mansfield's fiction, the thesis is divided into six parts.The first part is a brief introduction to Mansfield's short life and her contributions to the Modern Literature. In addition, this part covers a literature review on the study of Mansfield's short stories. The body of the thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one gives an introduction to difference among the fear, phobia and anxiety, the place where fear originates and the types of the female fears in feminine psychology. Chapter two mainly interprets the fear of uncertain identity which includes fear of uncertain female identity and fear of uncertain national identity. This part explains women's sense of division and fear in their inner life because of their"other identities"which occurs frequently in"Bliss","Je ne parle pas francais","Germans at Meat"and"the Woman at the Store". Chapter three is about fear of'rape'including'rape'in the physical and sexual sense and'rape'in spiritual. In this chapter, two famous short stories"Prelude"and"At the Bay"will be explored to demonstrate the women's fear of male sexuality and domination and mother's rejection of her own children;"Germans at Meat"will be analyzed again to the discussion of male sexual appetite through the symbolism of food. The fourth chapter focuses on women's fear of death. Four representative stories"The Daughters of Late Colonel","The Voyage","The Garden Party"and"At the Bay"will be used to display that the protagonists either suffer from the pain, panic because of their beloved ones'death or try to explore the paradox of the life and death and point out that death is another rebirth.Finally, the conclusion maintains that women's fear, ambivalent feelings and confusion about their identities are universal in patriarchal society which is due to the oppression of patriarchal culture and women's ambivalence towards its values. Although Mansfield does not provide an answer to women's liberation, she criticizes the patriarchal culture by analyzing the spiritual and physical oppression imposed by it on women.