ABSTRACT
In a 1920 notebook entry Katherine Mansfield recalled the waves she had seen that afternoon, and remarked on how the ‘high foam’ suspended in the air momentarily before it fell. She wondered about the meaning contained in ‘that moment of suspension’, especially its implications for and creative simulation in her own art. The wave motif was prevalent in Post-Impressionist art, and ‘suspension’ was a key concept that transcended the boundaries of painting and performing art prior to and during Mansfield’s time. Combined, they sum up two vital sources of creativity that permeate Mansfield’s art: the picture/painting as represented by the image of the wave, and the ‘suspension’ or pause that mirrors a ballet dancer’s momentary choreographic stasis in mid-air. My paper investigates how Mansfield manipulates narrative pauses akin to those in painting and dance to achieve lasting effects in her stories. In this process of finding a lingering freeze-frame in the narrative space, Mansfield developed her own aesthetic expression as the Post-Impressionists re-defined colour, or as the Ballets Russes dancers re-initiated perception of motion on stage.
