Katherine Mansfield and Gurdjieff: a focus for the investigation of her short stories

Abstract

Most appraisals of Katherine Mansfield's work take the form of technical analysis. These criticisms lead the reader to appreciate the artist's method but not the significance of her ideas. Katherine Mansfield did have ideas, and her stories illustrate a particular sensitivity and view of life which led her to seek out the teacher Gurdjieff. What she found at Fontainebleau were "ideas like my ideas, but bigger ones. Far more definite ones." J. Middleton Murry (Ed). Letters of Katherine Mansfield. Letter to J.M. Murry, Oct/14/1922, p500. If this link is recognised, a focus is provided to investigate the thematic content of her stories and a richer, more consistent, interpretation of her work becomes available.