‘Worms of the Same Family’: Katherine Mansfield and Elizabeth von Arnim
‘Worms of the Same Family’: Katherine Mansfield and Elizabeth von Arnim
This chapter traces literary influence Katherine Mansfield and Elizabeth von Arnim, writers who were artistic contemporaries, cousins and friends. It explores the relationship between kinship and literary influence: Elizabeth von Arnim was an early influence on Mansfield, prompted by their close family ties, and von Arnim’s Elizabeth novels clearly influenced Mansfield's In a German Pension (1911). Yet family identification can also threaten personal relationships, particularly when one writer enjoys more success than the other due to the adoption of different artistic ideologies and practices. Familial rivalry can itself, however, work as inspiration, revealed in the correspondence between Mansfield and von Arnim.
Keywords: Katherine Mansfield, Elizabeth von Arnim, literary influence, In a German Pension, modernism, kinship, middlebrow, identification, women’s writing
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