KATHERINE MANSFIELD       AND STORY STRUCTURE     

     STORY STRUCTURE

                                                     based on Labov

NORMAL SITUATION

Ordinary everyday situation.  Walking to the office.

UNUSUAL EVENT DISTURBS NORMAL SITUATION AND POSES

A space craft lands in the road and carries the protagonist off

THE PROBLEM

How to get free

MAIN CHARACTER ACTS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM

For example, he overpowers the puny spacemen

(In more complex stories the attempt to solve the problem may lead to a new problem (i.e. how to stee

r back to earth by himself, and then how to convince his wife/boss it actually happened) and the

 cycle will be repeated)

RESOLUTION

A new  is establish or the old one re-established.  The problem is not necessarily solved.  The protagonist may

 fail and die, or have to accept the situation, or there may be a psychological resolution in which the 

protagonist realises something and so sees the situation differently.  In Miss Brill she’s got to ‘live with it’

KATHERINE MANSFIELD AND STORY STRUCTURE: SOME EXAMPLES SO FAR

I’ve outlined conventional story structure based on Labov’s work.

This is to show how Katherine Mansfield often doesn’t quite fit into it.   

Here’s an attempt to fit three stories into that structure

Story	Norm	Upset to norm	Problem arising	Actions by protagonist	Resolution
Miss Brill	Sunday routine in the park	Rude comment by the youth	Not made explicit ?How to preserve her illusion of belonging?	No cake Puts fur  away	Ambiguous
An Indiscreet Journey	Not explicit (1) ?Home in England (safe) (2) Café life in Gray	Not explicit ?Need to see lover (dangerous) (2) Fine Mirabelle	(1) Getting through officialdom (2)  Getting through officialdom (death)	(1) None:  she’s helped and allowed (2) None:  she’s taken along	(1) Consummation implied? (2) Achieving Mirabelle (meaning?)
Je ne Parle pas Français	Vain writer’s life in Paris	English friend’s arrival, then departure, then with lover	(1)  Retaining friendship (2)  Helping couple	None:  observer	Unconscious guilt Lack of self-knowledge retained

 It's noticeably has lacking in action the characters are in these three stories.   In An Indiscreet Journey the protagonist takes the first courageous decision to go go France, but after that is very much carried along the helpers.  Miss Brill 'acts' insofar as she dresses up,  but her action to try and 'belong' only in her own mind.   In Je ne Parle pas Francais it's the awful inaction of the protagonist that the story hinges on - as also the inaction of the other characters.    All are as much observers as players in these stories.