Trauma Writing In Katherine Mansfield's Short Stories

Katherine Mansfield(1888-1923)has made great contribution to the short story genre,which earns her a place in the history of British literature.In her short stories,Mansfield creates many traumatized characters based on her personal experiences.Scholars have conducted a comprehensive investigation of Mansfield's own traumatic experience,but few have paid attention to the traumatized characters in Mansfield's short stories.However,those characters are so typical in Mansfield's fictions that they deserve a detailed exploration.Therefore,based on the trauma theory and a close examination of Mansfield's fictions,this thesis attempts to interpret characters' traumatic experiences in Mansfield's fictions from multiple perspectives and to explore how Mansfield manages to present characters' traumatized psychology through various writing techniques.This thesis includes five parts: introduction,three chapters,and conclusion.The introductory part illustrates Mansfield's life experience and works,reviews previous research and expounds theoretical framework and research value.In the first chapter,the thesis classifies characters' traumas into two categories: trauma from family and trauma from marginalized identity.The causes of trauma and trauma symptoms are also analyzed in this chapter.Based on Mansfield's three short story collections In a German Pension,Bliss and Other Stories,and The Garden Party and Other Stories,the second chapter explores how Mansfield presents characters' traumatized psychology by adopting interior monologue,displacement of time and space as well as symbolism.The third chapter discusses characters' attempt to recover from trauma and points out trauma writing is a therapy for Mansfield to relieve her personal trauma.The last part makes a brief conclusion of the above chapters.