SOURCE: Gurr, Andrew. “A Foot in Both Jungles: Katherine Mansfield.” In Writers in Exile: The Identity of Home in Modern Literature, pp. 33-64. Sussex, England: Harvester Press, 1981.

In the following excerpt, Gurr comments on Katherine Mansfield's attitude toward her being, in effect, an exile in England from her native New Zealand.

1. the Little Colonial

The exiled artist is like the rag which is tied in the middle of the rope used in a tug of war. He marks the still point between two straining forces. From one direction he is pulled by the sense of his own individuality which helped to make him an artist, the distinctive voice ready to tell its audience what they are not yet conscious of. From the other direction comes the tug of the unknown, the blank fear of the exile who has lost that sense of identity which comes from the feeling...