Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Introduction

Kimber, G. and Davison, C. (2016) Introduction. In: Kimber, G. and Davison, C. (eds.) The Diaries of Katherine Mansfield, including Miscellaneous Works. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 1-8.

Item Type: Book Section
Abstract: Katherine Mansfield's diary entries offer us nothing less than the poetry of everyday life – the poetics of materiality interacting with intertextuality, encompassing art, music, contemporary history, personal finances, observation, memory, testimony, imagination and emotion. KM’s diaries are not composed of one single voice, but rather are to be read like an orchestral score – interweaving themes, threads, patterns, parts and styles. What do emerge are the byways of an author’s creative imagination, encompassed in the quirkiness of style or the meandering patterns of thought. When read alongside her polished published stories, and illuminated by biography, the personal writing reads as a testimony to Mansfield’s other life – when her aspirations to authorship, creative and economic autonomy, imaginative and stylistic originality, her keen ear for the material world around her, all attest to the brilliance of a pioneering proto-modernist and modernist voice, often well in advance of the heavyweights and highbrows with whom she has tended to be compared.
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PR English literature > PR8309 English literature: Provincial, local, etc. > PR9639.3 New Zealand literature
Creators: Kimber, Gerri and Davison, Claire
Editors: Kimber, Gerri and Davison, Claire
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
Faculties > Faculty of Education & Humanities > English and Creative Writing
Date: 10 March 2016
Date Type: Publication
Page Range: pp. 1-8
Title of Book: The Diaries of Katherine Mansfield, including Miscellaneous Works
Series Name: The Edinburgh edition of the collected works of Katherine Mansfield
Volume: 4
Place of Publication: Edinburgh
Number of Pages: 520
Language: English
ISBN: 9780748685059
Status: Published / Disseminated
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/8457

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