Abstract
In his introduction to The Penguin Book of the British Short Story (2015) Philip Hensher explains his decision to exclude Katherine Mansfield as one of those writers “conferring merit on their place of birth rather than their residence” (xiii). Yet Mansfield is often included in surveys of British short fiction; and, as I demonstrate, her work has been a formative influence on the British short story, especially for women writers, including many, if not most, selected by Hensher. Through a close reading of selected stories by Mansfield and the contributions in Hensher's anthology from A.S. Byatt, Tessa Hadley, Ali Smith and Janice Galloway, I identify some of the techniques and themes that form a continuity between Mansfield's short fiction and that of contemporary writers, exploring the evasive and sometimes contested questions of national identity and form raised by Hensher's introduction.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Re-forming World Literature: Katherine Mansfield and the Modernist Short Story |
Editors | Gerri Kimber, Janet Wilson |
Publisher | Hanover: Ibidem Verlag |
Pages | 93-112 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783838211138 |
Publication status | Published - 27 Apr 2018 |
Keywords
- Katherine Mansfield
- A.S. Byatt
- Janice Galloway
- Tessa Hadley
- Ali Smith
- British short story