ABSTRACT
This chapter explores dual dynamics in Katherine Mansfield’s “Psychology.” The critical consensus has only seen the tale as depicting a man and a woman who are passionately and secretly in love with each other. But this overlooks a covert progression where the woman cherishes unrequited love for the man and after fierce mental struggles, finally accepts pure friendship as the man wishes. While in the plot development, the event structure is merely “revelatory” and the relationship between the man and the woman stays pretty much the same, in the undercurrent the event structure displays a progress towards a resolution; while in the plot-based overt progression, focalization keeps shifting, in the undercurrent, focalization is quite fixed. Moreover, what appears to be reliable reporting by the narrator in the overt progression frequently turns out to be merely character’s illusion in the undercurrent. When readers discover the dual textual dynamics, they will readjust the interpretation of various textual elements originally perceived as functioning only in the overt progression, and consequently recalibrate their understanding of the rhetorical purposes of the author and of the thematic import, character relationship, and aesthetic values of the text.
