On The Beauty Of Blank In Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories

Katherine Mansfield is a legend in the history of English short story. Although she wasborn on New Zealand and died at a young age, she gained great fame in the field of Englishliterature and was regarded as one of the most prominent innovators and pioneers of Englishshort stories. Mansfield is good at exploring the deep meaning hidden behind the trivialfragments of everyday life, which endows her short stories with an implicit and poetic beauty.Many scholars and critics at home and abroad have analyzed the short stories ofMansfield. However, most of the studies are from the perspectives of biographical study,feminism, modernism, stylistics, or narrative style. Up to now, few researchers have analyzedMansfield’s short stories in light of the theory of Blank, an important concept from Chineseclassical aesthetics. Blank is an important way of interpreting the beauty of art, and it canimply infinite appeal. Therefore, it is a suitable way to illustrate the implicit writing style ofMansfield.This thesis tends to interpret the short stories of Mansfield in light of the theory of Blank.It falls into six parts: Introduction, four chapters of analysis and Conclusion.Introduction makes a brief study about Mansfield’s crucial role in English short stories’development and her short stories as well as literature reviews. Then the significance of thispaper is pointed out: compared with direct expression, Mansfield prefers to reveal her realintention through trivial incidents. However, this revelation is rather implicit. This featuremakes blank exist everywhere in her short stories, which stands for a beauty that beyondwords.Chapter One is the theoretical basis of the thesis. It makes a thorough analysis about thetheory of Blank. The meaning of blank, expression of blank in Chinese traditional arts and theoretical origin of blank are illuminated, on basis of which the analysis about the uniqueaesthetic appeal created by blank are put forward. Chinese classical aesthetics is deeplyaffected by Chinese traditional philosophy. Ever since the Taoism, the aesthetic conception of“take non-being as the foremost” has began to flood in Chinese people’s blood. According toChinese classical aesthetics, it is more significant to grasp the soul rather than superficialcontents. On basis of this aesthetic conception, the theory of Blank is developed. It lays muchemphasis on enlarging the aesthetic space of literary works and digging out the infiniteundermeanings hidden behind them. Therefore, the literary works can have an ever-lastingappeal.Chapter Two interprets the blank of character in Mansfield’s short stories. The firstsection analyzes the blank in creating image based on The Lady’s Maid. Behind the seeminglyindifferent monologue of the old maid, profound meaning is unrevealed, which is worthy ofmeditation and makes the lady and the maid vivid and successfully sensed by readers. Thesecond section analyzes the blank in revealing emotion based on A Cup of Tea. Just byportrayal of a series of trivial actions and without any direct description of the inner feelings,the state of mind of the protagonist is successfully exposed by Mansfield.Chapter Three illustrates the blank of structure. The first part analyzes the blank in thebeginning in A Dill Pickle. Without any introduction, Mansfield abruptly starts the story withthe quite different attitudes of two people when they encounter after many years’ departure.The blank here is helpful to arouse readers’ aesthetic impulse and make the story full of tense.The second part analyzes the blank in the plot in The Man Without Temperament. Trivialincidents and fragmentary recollections interweave together in this short story, which isseemingly boring but quite meaningful in essence. The third part analyzes the blank in the endin The Garden Party. Laura’s opinion about death is expressed by Mansfield just by a dash inthe end. It seems that nothing is told, but the infinite meditation about life and death is proposed.Chapter Four studies the blank created by rhetorical techniques. In the first section,based on The Man Without Temperament and Bliss, blank created by symbolism is discussed.Through the symbols such as ring, lightning, pear tree and moonlight, the implicit writingstyle of Mansfield is obviously shown. In the second section, based on The Man WithoutTemperament and An Ideal Family, blank created by repetition is analyzed. The intentionalrepetition makes the story flood with an implicit beauty, and urges readers to probe into thedeeper meaning of it. In the third section, blank created by contrast in Miss Brill is discussed.From her quite different attitudes toward the fur and the strong contrast between smile and cry,the despair and gloom of Miss Brill can be clearly sensed by readers although it is not directlyshowed by Mansfield.Based on the above analysis, it is pointed out that blank is an important way ofinterpreting the beauty of art and it can imply infinite appeal. Blank can spur the aestheticimpulse of readers, and it can also enlarge the aesthetic space of literary works, making thework flexible and meaningful. What is more important, the implications of blank is profound,which can make readers get infinite aesthetic enjoyment. To conclude, blank is notnothingness. It is from the theory of blank that the unique taste and ever-lasting appeal ofMansfield’s short stories can be reasonably explained. Meanwhile, the analysis of Mansfield’sshort stories in light of the theory of Blank makes the combination of the thought resources orconstructive power in Chinese culture and Western culture become a possibility. Thecomplementarity and mutual promotion between Chinese and Western cultures may alsobecome a feasible try in the field of literary criticism.