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G. Kimber, Katherine Mansfield : The View from France

G. Kimber, Katherine Mansfield : The View from France

Publié le par Gabriel Marcoux-Chabot (Source : Site web de la maison d'édition)

KIMBER, Gerri, Katherine Mansfield : The View from France, New York / Bern / Berlin / Bruxelles / Frankfurt am Main / Oxford / Wien, Peter Lang (European Connections), 2008, 290 p.
ISBN 978-3-03911-392-7

RÉSUMÉ

This book assesses the reason why Katherine Mansfield's reputation inFrance has always been greater than in England. It examines the ways inwhich the French reception of Mansfield has idealised her persona tothe extent of crafting a hagiography. Mansfield is placed within thegeneral literary context of her era, exploring French literarytendencies at the time and juxtaposing them with the main literarytrends in England. The author determines the motives behind the Frenchcritics' desire to put Mansfield on a pedestal, discusses how the threeyears she spent on French soil influenced her writing and whether thetranslations of her work collude in the myth surrounding herpersonality. This book is the first sustained attempt to establishinterconnections between her own French influences (literary andotherwise) and the myth-making of the French critics and translators.The book also follows the critical appraisal of Mansfield's life andwork in France from her death up to the present day, by closelyanalysing the differing French critical responses. The author revealshow these various strands combine to create a legend which has littlebasis in fact, thereby demonstrating how reception and translationdetermine the importance of an author's reputation in the literaryworld.

TABLES DES MATIÈRES

Influences and Innovations - Falling for France - Specific FrenchLiterary Influences - Back to Basics: Mansfield's Narrative Technique -Translating Katherine Mansfield - The Critical Trend: The Developmentof the Legend.

BIOGRAPHIE

Gerri Kimber is Lecturer in New Zealand Studies at the Centre for NewZealand Studies, Birkbeck, University of London. She has publishedextensively on Katherine Mansfield and has also written articles on C.K. Stead, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Sylvia Townsend Warner and VirginiaWoolf. She is co-editor of the CNZS Bulletin of New Zealand Studies and co-organiser of the Katherine Mansfield Centenary Conference, Birkbeck, University of London, in September 2008.