A Thorny Journey Of Female Self-Pursuit—The Lacanian Interpretation Of Mansfield’s Short Stories

Katherine Mansfield is a prominent English short story writer at the beginning of the twentieth century. As a female writer, she is deeply concerned with female life and creates numerous different women characters. Most critics intend to interpret her women characters by the analysis of her innovations on the short story form and the narrative techniques. Few of them have done the analysis of women characters from the linguistic construction. Therefore, this thesis tries to position female characters in the context of phallic language by deploying Lacanian three-order theory. It confirms that women are constructed by the phallic language and they have to accept the patriarchal law and masculine language defined for the purpose of confirming their existence.The thesis intends to focus on the women characters in the Burnell family and illustrate the process of their identity pursuit. They experience split, dual oppression and disillusionment when they go through these three orders one by one. It points out that women should find their own discourse to inform their existence. Undoubtedly, Mansfield’s innovations on the short story form and narrative techniques echo this theme.