Publication of the week: Setara Pracha

Pracha, S., “Apples and pears: Symbolism and influence in Daphne du Maurier’s ‘The Apple Tree’ and Katherine Mansfield’s ‘Bliss’ “, in C. Hanson, G. Kimber & W.T. Martin (eds), Katherine Mansfield and Psychology (Edinburgh University Press, 2016). ISBN: 978-1-4744-1753-2.

This essay focuses on a comparative analysis of the short stories ‘Bliss’ (1918) by Katherine Mansfield and ‘The Apple Tree’ (1952) by Daphne du Maurier, two stories that illustrate key literary parallels: the use of dramatic irony, ‘organic unity’, and liminal spaces. In recent years literary criticism has repositioned Mansfield as a vital contributor to the development of literary modernism. Her influence upon other writers is still being explored and the short stories of du Maurier, herself erroneously regarded as merely a popular novelist, indicate both Mansfield and modernism as primary influences. Clare Drewery argues that there are “few comparative discussions of modernist women’s short stories”; this study attempts to redress such an imbalance by showing how a close reading of Mansfield and du Maurier illuminates the current debate on genre and gender within shorter fiction.

Read more about the book on the Edinburgh University Press website.

Setara Pracha is a lecturer in The Department of English and Digital Media, and is writing articles on twentieth century short stories and women’s writing, following on from her doctoral research on “A Pathology of Desire: Corporeality in Daphne du Maurier’s Short Stories”.