From James Joyce to Katherine Mansfield: Epiphanic Poetics and Writing of the Self

With the term and notion of epiphany Joyce created not only what was to become a fundamental tool for the interpretation of his own work. He gave a name to – thus contributing to make visible – an issue which, to a large extent, characterised all modernist poetics and which determined the restless formal experimentation of the period. In this essay, I analyse some aspects of Katherine Mansfield’s reflection on the epiphanic moment, which she calls “glimpse”. My aim is twofold: on the one hand, I wish to highlight the original stance of this major and highly innovative author, whose deep theoretical awareness has long been undervalued; on the other hand, I intend to provide material for further critical investigation on the affinity and difference between Mansfield and Joyce on the notion of epiphany, thereby contributing to the general critical debate on the aesthetics which developed during the first decades of the twentieth century.