Object structure

Creator:

Cappuccio, Richard

Contributor:

Gołębiowska, Urszula - red. nauk. ; Kubasiewicz, Mirosława - red. nauk.

Title:

"I try to pray and i think of something clever": Katherine Mansfield and modernist prayer

Group publication title:

Scripta Humana, 14

Subject and Keywords:

prayer ; modernism ; the penitent in literature ; modernist reactions to religion ; Mansfield, Katherine (pseud.); Mansfield Murry, Kathleen (1888-1923) ; Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888-1965)

Abstract:

Katherine Mansfield was raised in a culture that instilled prayer as central to daily life. She recorded her first extant diary entry in her "Book of Common Prayer"; those penciled notes started a lifelong dialogue with religion. However, Mansfield`s emphasis on individuality and art over tradition resulted in her ambivalence towards religion; she was critical of a piety learned by rote and of a dogma to which one blindly adhered. ; This paper contends, however, that she exploited the complexity of prayer in her private and published work. Forging her writing style, Mansfield consistently used prayer as both a subject and form in her stories, journals, and poetry. In her fiction, she records an extender narrative of the conflicted petitioner. Most importantly, she used prayer to examine the spirituals nature of the writer. ; Mansfield`s religious sensibility, both reactive and participatory, was part of her search for the miraculous. While T.S. Eliot in his praise of the "Light Invisible" eventually reclaimed prayer for modernism, Mansfield focused, instead, on an individual`s struggle in using prayer. In assessing Mansfield in relation to Eliot, this paper examines "Prelude", "At the Bay", "Daughters of the Late Colonel", "Taking the Veil", as well as some of her unpublished sketches. ; In addition, there is particular emphasis on her poems that take the form of prayer. While Mansfield`s fictional characters expect an immediate response to prayer, privately Mansfield recognized her ongoing effort required for meaningful meditation.

Publisher:

Zielona Góra: Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego

Date:

2019

Resource Type:

rozdział w książce

Format:

application/pdf

Pages:

29-44

Source:

Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego: Seria Scripta Humana, tom 14

Language:

eng

Rights:

Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego