The Voyage, by K. Mansfield (1921)

Résumé du document

In 1923 one of the most famous New Zealander writers of the colonial period Katherine Mansfield died. She had gained renown as a modernist storyteller for her symbolic short stories, in which she displayed her admirable mastery in depicting human feelings and psychological tensions, such as internal conflicts. Born in Wellington in 1888, Katherine Mansfield published her first text at the age of nine. She received her education from 1903 to 1906 at Queen's College, London, and then returned to Wellington, where her father frustrated her musical professional ambitions. Thanks to her lifelong friend Ida Baker, her father at least allowed her to move back to England with a pension at the age of 18. There, she decided to dedicate her entire life to writing and started publishing Chekhov-like short stories. She only suggested the main drama by less remarkable occurrences. Through subtle and delicate descriptions of events of everyday life, she managed to analyze social and psychological trauma on a metaphoric mode.

Extraits

[...] Simple and rich at the same time, Mansfield's writing style wonderfully serves her psychological observations. Furthermore, Voyage” constitutes a deep and beautiful psychological metaphor of the symbolic awakening. In this short story as well as in Garden Party”, Mansfield used symbols to manifest a transition from childhood to adulthood. The death of her mother forced Fenella to grow up suddenly. The umbrella symbolizes her interior journey. At first, the grandmother constantly reminds Fenella to carefully manipulate it not to break it: careful the umbrellas aren't caught in the stair rail”. [...]

[...] In the opening scene, Fenella, her father and her grandmother are walking to a harbor. Fenella and her grandmother heartbreakingly say goodbye to the thoughtful father before going into their cabin onboard the Picton boat. Once onboard, the grandmother gives the grandchild an umbrella to look after, turns down the offer of a stewardess to bring her food, and undresses with Fenella in the cabin in preparation for the night. At this point of the story, the reader learns that Fenella is being taken away from her father because, as a result of his wife's death, he seems unable to care for her alone. [...]

[...] The Voyage (1921) By K. Mansfield Posthumously published in 1923, voyage” undeniably bears the mark of death. Faithful to Chekhov literary style, and inspired by her own tragic life, Mansfield beautifully depicts an abrupt psychological transition from childhood to adulthood resulting from the death of a beloved relative. This symbolic short story narrates the voyage of a girl moving away from her widowed father, who does not take it upon himself to bring her alone, to live on another island with her grandparents. [...]

[...] By contrast, the last images of the journey emphasize the lightness of the sky and the sea. This discrepancy points out Fenella's step further on her walk of life. As opposed to Laura's fuzzy maturation, Fenella made an easy transition from a state of ignorance to an understanding of adulthood. Despite a certain complexity, The Voyage undeniably provides a beautiful, metaphorical and powerful depiction of internal psychological tensions. Difficult to seize, the poetics of implicit and symbolism is yet extremely moving. Voyage certainly, constitutes a penetrating example of Mansfield's delicate and rich writing style. [...]

[...] Virginia Woolf declared: “Mansfield had the only writing I have ever been jealous of. She had the vibration”. Indeed, Mansfield's short and elegant sentences create a “briskness and liveliness in her prose”. The parallelisms, such as “quick, nervous strides” echoed by “crackling, black ulster”, contribute to the fluidity of the style. Her plain and simple language is consistent with her telling the story from Fenella's point of view and conveys the extreme purity of the depicted human relations: the lively and caring grandmother keeps a watchful eye on her innocent and yet growing granddaughter. [...]