Katherine Mansfield
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Major Issues Major IssuesLiterary historians have examined Mansfield’s contribution to the development of modernist short fiction, especially her experimental employment of stream of consciousness. Concise description, evocative imagery, and realistic dialogue have been identified as hallmarks of Mansfield’s style. Mansfield abandons plot, and structures her stories, instead, around "moments of illumination." Her major themes include the complexity of love, passion, sexuality, the superficiality of upper class society, and the ravaging effects of time. Scholars note that ambiguity and openness, as well as wit, pervade Mansfield’s fiction. Feminist critics have shown interest in her many probing portraits of female characters. Postcolonial studies have focused on her New Zealand subjects. Author LinksMansfield
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