‘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
Edinburgh Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.