‘The Chorus Girl and the Tariff’ by Katherine Mansfield

Abstract

KM took literary inspiration from America-based performers that visited Wellington and London, including pianist Teresa Carreño and actress ‘Mrs. Hannibal Williams’ – she associated with performing artists throughout her short life – and took an interest in American theatre and cinema. KM used theatrical conventions, techniques and characters in her stories and had a desire to reach or create an audience in America. ‘The Chorus Girl and the Tariff by Katherine Mansfield’ is a monologue concerning the dull humiliation of scratching a living off, and on, Broadway, New York. Despite problematic jargon and detailed geography specific to locations in New York, attribution of the text to KM – who toured as a chorus girl with Garnet Trowell and the Moody Manners Opera Company in 1909 (when it was published) – is plausible and the sketch has the potential to shed light on some of the obscure events of KM’s early life in New Zealand and London.