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Tue Datekin Catherine Macmillan Post-war literature October 15, 2013

THE FEATURES OF MODERNISM AND THE ANALYSIS OF CATHERINE MANSFIELDS THE GARDEN PARTY The term modernism is used to identified new and distinctive features of subjects, forms, Concepts, style of literature and the other arts in the earlier decade of 20th century. It is a Cultural movement that involves changes in art, architecture, music and literature. Modernism rejects the moral and values that came with Enlightenment. They are against Papas hierarchical Europe and they re-examine belief system and authority in a society which Allow the war to happen. Moreover they are subjective rather than objective. According to Modernists, there is no truth. Everything is relative. In literature writers want to radical break with the past. All movements are against the Previous one because the world is different now. In the 20th century the whole lifestyle and Culture has changed and none of the earlier forms were not adequate to describe anymore. In this period all artists were aware of the problem in the society so with the Modernism they want to show their arts. Instead of progress, the Modernist writer saw a decline of civilization. Instead of new technology, the Modernist writer saw it only materialism and cold machinery and they think that it alienated people and led them to loneliness. Modernist writers abandoned the idea of a logical, directed narrative. Their aim is to show realistic portrayal of contemporary life. Modernist literature has some special features. There is confusion about distinction between the genres. For example

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poetry becomes prose-like and the prose becomes more poetic. They are influenced by psychology and question scientific rationalism. They are influenced by some philosophers, Such as Freud. They care with the Freuds Psychoanalytical theory. According to this theory Freud tells conscious, unconscious and sub-conscious mind. Conscious mind is our part of mind that we aware and unconscious mind is the burned part of our mind. And they try to reach our unconscious mind with literature. In poetry they use the language of everyday life. They use free verse. It provides flexibility in line length. And it contains massive use of alliteration and assonance. Poets do not use traditional meter and regular rhyme scheme and they use visual images in distinct lines. In Fction Juxtaposition, irony, comparisons, and satire are important element that found in modernist writing. The characters are self as diverse, contradictory and ambiguous. They use imaginative way rather than giving logical connections. And plot open multi-plots and unexpected turning points. And open unresolved endings. And Modernist writers use new technique called stream of conscious and interior monologue. Modernism is against single, authoritative and omniscient point of view that comes from the consciousness of one character. Instead of this, they take multiple points of view through one character. And so we know all idea and feelings that pass through the character via the idea of Stream of Consciousness. Moreover they use the technique called Media res. The short story "The Garden Party" was written in 1923 by Katherine Mansfield. She was born in 14 October 1888. was an significant modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Katherine Mansfields stories represent some of the finest and most sensitive stories in English literature. She presents us the harsh reality of life. The short story "The Garden Party" was written in 1923 by Katherine Mansfield. This story shows us very innocent young girls. The setting is Mansfields childhood home at Tinakori Road, Wellington. They

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live in gorgeous villa. They are on the hill but on the other side of road the workers and poor live. When we look at the characterization, we see 5 characters that we mainly see. They are Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan and their children Laura, Laurie and Jose. Laura is the dynamic character in the story. Laura and her brother Laurie get along well with each other and they are different from the other members of family. Laura loves self-conscious and struggle against the idea of class distinction. Mrs. Sheridan is superficial woman and she only care with the exterior things such as clothes and she is cold instead of being warm hearted. Similarly Jose is this kind woman and she has a class conscious like her mother. It is a story about an upper-class British family who is planning to party. It is a warm and sunny day and family make preparations for party. While preparing, the family hears about a tragic accident which occurred in the poor part of the neighborhood and man leaves behind his wife and five children. The one daughter Laura is very upset about the news of tragic accident and she wants to cancel all party. And she tries to convince her sister Jose and her mother not to make party. But they refuse to agree with this idea. Her family thinks that she is overreacting. And her mother even amused about the idea of his daughter because she thinks that the death should not affect them because their house is at the top of the hill and is separated from the lower-class families. Later, Mrs. Sheridan gives Laura a beautiful hat to divert her attention from the bad news of poor neighborhood. And she takes hat angrily and she looks herself and thinks her mothers words and she drives away her ideas about the occurrence. Meanwhile the guests come and they spend perfect times in the party. After party the family come together and speaks about the party. Then Mr. Sheridan mentions about the accident mistakenly and Mrs. Sheridan feels nervous and awkward about it because she does not want to talk about accident again. As a result Mrs. Sheridan suggests that they provide a basket of left-over food to the family. Laura fills the basket with food, and begins to go their home. But she feels uncomfortable because the atmosphere of road is very dark and quiet. The house she goes has

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a lot of woman gathered outside and she knocks the door and woman opens the door and invites her to take a look the corpse. This experience is not horrible at all as she thinks because she thinks that he is marvelous and far away from everything. And she starts to cry and she leaves home quickly. When she leaves, her brother is waiting for her and asks are you good? She tries to tell something about her unfamiliar experience and the awareness that she gains about life but she does cannot express her thoughts. But her brother understands what she is trying to say. The readers see some modernist features, themes and symbolism in the story. The story has media res technique. It does not have an introduction. The narrative begins in the middle of the story and the narrator describes the scene in a casual and immediate manner, so it creates an intimacy with the reader. At on the first paragraph the narrator presents many characters to us and narrator gives some detail about them. And she uses of the technique of Stream of Consciousness; Mansfield wrote the story in limited person point of view. The author presents the thoughts of Laura only. And we hear the unconsciousness part of her mind. However we know other characters thoughts only through what they say and do. Later, at the end of the story we aware that story starts with a happy mood but it end with funeral scene. It shows the common aspects of life as the modernists used to do. After, there are some symbolisms in the story. In ths story class system and social responsibility is questioned. l think that the character Mrs. Sheridan symbolizes the harshness and cold Victorian society and later the character named called Laura symbolize the ambiguity and uncertainty of modern age. Moreover the hat is also an important symbolism. The hat Mrs. Sheridan gives to Laura can seen as a metaphor to divert his Lauras concern. So, it symbolizes the indifferent world view of Mrs. Sheridan. Moreover it also contains some important themes that characterized the modernism. The first one is self-consciousness and class consciousness. Laura notices something beyond her life. it is death but it is not only an awareness of death

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but also an humanity. Laura is not only notice the death but also she sees that how their family is selfish and their problems as more important than the others. The second one is illusion versus reality. It is connected with life and death. Laura sticks to high class family, food, clothes and parties. And sees only unrealistic way of life but than their lower class neighborhood died and she discover the reality with the death. She perceives the death in a positive way. and she seems death as sleep far away from troubles in human life. All in all, The Garden Party is one of the most popular modernist work. Catherine Mansfield is against the cold and rigid Victorian age. And she especially focuses on the idea of self-consciousness and class consciousness. She is not only show the imaginative way of life but also she shows us the reality. In this story Mansfield shows us the high and lofty side of life but on the other hand we see the poor and dark side of life. And l think that this is the best story that shows high status and money is helpless against the reality of life; death

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books Deen, Stella. Chanllenging modernism: new readings in literature and culture. Aldershot. Hampshire, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002

Web sites
http://www.sprog.asb.dk/tt/giddens/lectures/some_characteristics_of_modernism.htm http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0255.html http://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/history/what-are-characteristics-of-modernist-literaturefiction-in-particular