A Spiritual Exploration of Exotic Wandering Female—On the Acoustic Narrative Strategy of "Miss Brill"

Abstract

The medium of sound is often found in the narratives of modernist writers, and Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill" is an excellent modernist masterpiece, rich in sound elements: the conversations of the neighbors, the crowd noise in the park, the varied orchestra music ... sounds in the novel plays an important role in the development and advancement of the narrative. From the perspective of acoustic narrative, this essay explores how Mansfield transforms the protagonist's inner consciousness and external environment through the construction of auscultation and soundscapes, thus enabling the reader to deeply experience the richness of an exotic wandering woman's heart in the dynamic world of the novel. The soundscapes not only add to the poetic beauty of the novel, bringing a vivid sensory experience to the reader, but also more relevantly express the subjectivity of the female characters who struggle and struggle in the face of existential adversity.