Katherine Mansfield and Continental Europe

Abstract

New scholarly assessments of Katherine Mansfield's relationships with Continental Europe and the European reception of her work The inaugural volume of Katherine Mansfield Studies illuminates Mansfield’s literary and personal relationships with Continental Europe. The essays explore Mansfield’s absorption of French literature and thought, highlighting affinities with Henri Bergson’s interpretations of consciousness and with the writings of Marcel Proust. There are important insights into the memorable letters written by Mansfield whilst trapped in Paris under German Bombardment in 1918. Beyond France, we are offered an intriguing view of Mansfield’s literary and critical afterlife in Czechoslovakia, and of the cosmopolitanism that characterised her entire life and writing. Also in this volume – appearing in the wake of the publication of the final volume of her collected letters – Mansfield’s own practice as a reviewer is explored as a counter-balance to her current critical reception. With a preface by a distinguished editor and scholar of Mansfield and a rich creative writing section that includes work by several eminent New Zealand writers.