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Strange Monsters: The Struggle for Women’s Validity as Artists in the Writings of Elizabeth von Arnim and Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield’s In a German Pension (1911) and Elizabeth von Arnim’s Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898) and Christine (1917) are works that examine the conflicted position of the woman artist who navigates filial and marital obligations. Readers must consider the role of women artists in a culture in which expectations for conformity conflict with women’s ideas about their creative needs. This paper examines the position of women artists in two of von Arnim’s novels as well as three of Mansfield’s stories, two from In A German Pension, ‘A Modern Soul’ and ‘The Advanced Lady’, and one later story, ‘The Singing Lesson’ (1920). These are works that address the challenges and alienation that the modern woman faced if she identified herself as an artist; they also question whether art alone could change the status quo.