Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)

A selective list of online literary criticism for the twentieth-century British (New Zealander) short-story writer Katherine Mansfield, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars and articles published in peer-reviewed sources


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introduction & biography

"Capturing and Creating the Modern," a project from the British Library, provides a group of excellent articles covering many early twentieth-century modernist works, including T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prefrock," the short stories of Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce's Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses, Virginia Woolf's novels, W.H. Auden's poetry, and much more. Introductory, close reading, and thematic articles by recognized experts in their subjects, and links to manuscript drafts in British Library's archive.

"Mansfield, Katherine." Extended biography of Katherine Mansfield, from the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. "No other New Zealand figure has troubled or challenged so many writers to irreverent, defiant or merely exploitative responses." New Zealand Book Council.

"Katherine Mansfield." An encyclopedia-type biography of Katherine Mansfield, from the Poetry Foundation.

The Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society. A web site that includes biographical information and photos, and sustains the New Zealand house in which Mansfield was born.

Smith, Angela. "Katherine Mansfield." A substantial introduction to Katherine Mansfield from the Literary Encyclopedia 30 March 2001 [subscription service].


literary criticism

Brock, Richard. "Disapprobation, Disobedience and the Nation in Katherine Mansfield's New Zealand Stories." On recurring themes in "How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped" and other of Mansfield's stories that are set in New Zealand. Journal of New Zealand Literature 24, 1 (2006) pp 58-72 [free at jstor].

Mitchell, J. Lawrence. "Katherine Mansfield and the Aesthetic Object." On Mansfield's treatment of certain everyday objects, particularly the "little lamp" in "The Doll's House," and their meaning for her stories. Journal of New Zealand Literature 22 (2004) pp 32-54 [first page only, blurred].

Murray, Heather. "Katherine Mansfield and her British Critics: It There a 'Heart' in Mansfield's Fiction?" On Mansfield's moral questioning, and accusations from some of her readers of "heartlessness," in "The Prelude," "Miss Brill," "The Doll's House," "Bliss," and other stories. Journal of New Zealand Literature 6 (1988) pp 99-118 [free at jstor].

Smith, Angela. "Katherine Mansfield and Rhythm." How Mansfield's writing for the magazine Rhythm, and her fellow writers there, influenced the development of her style. Journal of New Zealand Literature 21 (2003) pp 102-21 [free at jstor].

Waldron, Philip. "Katherine Mansfield's Journal." Waldron examines the changes in Katherine Mansfield's journal that her husband, John Middleton Murry, made before he published it in 1927 and 1954. Twentieth Century Literature 20, 1 (Jan. 1974) pp 11-18 [free at jstor].


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