Kimber, G. (2015) Tea, Zen and “Cosmic Anatomy”: The Mysticism of Katherine Mansfield. Invited Presentation presented to: The Friends of the Turnball Library Event (FoTL), Tiakiwai Conference Centre, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand, 04 August 2015. (Unpublished)
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Abstract:
This FoTL talk will explore Katherine Mansfield’s spiritual development during her life, culminating in her decision to enter Gurdjieff’s ‘Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man’ in Fontainebleau in the autumn of 1922, claiming that ‘I want to be all that I am capable of becoming so that I may be – […] a child of the sun’.
Less than two years after KM’s arrival in London in 1908 to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, the enormous Japanese exhibition was held in London from May to October 1910. It was a concerted and systematic attempt by Japan to explain its traditional society and arts, modern industry and empire to Great Britain, and over 8 million visitors attended. Mansfield took to wearing a kimono at home, read the poems of Yone Noguchi, and talked about visiting Japan.
There were Japanese allusions in both her fiction and her personal writing for the rest of her life. In addition, in 1922, Mansfield’s life was transformed by a book entitled Cosmic Anatomy and the Structure of the Ego, whose Eastern mystic philosophy she wholeheartedly embraced, and which drove her to seek a spiritual cure for her diseased body, since physical cures had proved worthless.
Subjects:
Creators:
Kimber, G.
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes:
Date:
4 August 2015
Date Type:
Presentation
Event Title:
The Friends of the Turnball Library Event (FoTL)
Event Dates:
04 August 2015
Event Location:
Tiakiwai Conference Centre, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand
Event Type:
Other
Language:
English
Status:
Unpublished
Refereed:
No
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