‘We Talked about Solitude’: Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and Affective Bonding

Before they met in 1917, Virginia Woolf envisioned a peculiar setting for her first encounter with Katherine Mansfield, the promising young writer who had ‘dogged [her] steps three years’. Intriguingly, imagined she might glimpse not drawing-room of mutual friend or at literary soirée, but ‘on rock sea’ – there, ‘I shall accost her’.1 pictures Mansfield an attitude reminiscent Frederic Leighton’s Solitude (1890), allegorical painting ‘woman draped white, sitting on rock’ overlooking sea, mentioned Mansfield’s 1915 short story, ‘Autumns: II’.2 This allusion reveals acute attention to early work, as well tendency imagine New Zealand outsider liminal position, tricked out classical trappings promontory own. It seems that, Woolf, allure was mixed up air solitude. Indeed, solitude would draw these writers together magnet, fertile ground ‘accost’. Woolf’s image proved strangely prescient if, already attuned sound ‘waves breaking’, somehow anticipated declaration diary, ‘All that I write all am is border sea’.3 If assumed could identify ‘sign’ (not merely signature own citation longstanding pictorial traditions), it worth recognising we, their readers, also approach figures through iconography developed by contemporaries and cultural legatees. For instance, when husband John Middleton Murry edited journal posthumous publication, he presented female isolate par excellence, adding subheadings like ‘Femme Seule’, ‘Being Alone’, ‘Living Alone’.4 Similarly, 1930, Cecil Beaton described fragile ‘sea-anemone’ ‘curls contact outer world’, marine influenced popular representation decades (despite indignation), perhaps because suicide drowning 1941.5 Such depictions modernist embracing deluge alone tragic heroic determination seem caricatures, especially light recent scholarship modernists’ efforts develop meaningful forms intimacy public engagement.6 Nevertheless, addition complicating stock images, we consider how crude outlines invite questions about legibility evasiveness ubiquitous affect call ‘solitude’. The assumptions colour simultaneously, distinctive body can be recognised virtue solitary generic genius loci should alert us implicated ‘the tension between personal expression general convention’. once passionate feeling (or claim to) singularity, uncompromised only-ness, culturally encoded ‘repertoire actions statements […] postures signs’ evoke heat genuine frisson tepid clichés.7 In singling one, gestures towards universal, connoting island ‘continent’, one standing sea ‘mortal millions live alone’ shoreless watery wild’.8 landscape where travel characterised discursive landmarks pocked others’ steps. Thus, this paper only traces connections thoughts solitude, tracks course wider horizon. emerges fluid network feeling, expressive norms emotional protocols are ‘repeatedly undone very wildness’ its ebbs flows.9 literature have been deeply wedded Western imaginary, often considered essential precondition creativity, marking writer’s commitment craft. We might, think Henry James sententiously advising aspiring inscribe ‘one word’ ‘upon your banner … word Loneliness’.10 James’s self-advertising tone aside, subscribes idea, remarking ‘solitude will good new book’ ‘it likely best [phrases] made solitude’.11 Moreover, seminal essay, A Room One’s Own, contends throughout history, too few women privilege uninterrupted income £500 which purchase escape from voice ‘eternal’ patriarchal ‘pedagogue’ ‘which cannot let alone’.12 Although did explicitly frame need gendered terms (and, perpetual boarder, knew room one’s rented less), valued spatial privacy. ‘[T]o alone’, notes, ‘2 essentials my writing endless time no fires attend to, no-one wait I’d better find London quickly £5 furnish it’.13 reclaim space independence, individuation, growth perennial touchstone literary, sociological, philosophical studies highlight solitude’s positive functions revitalising social critique creative resource.14 rapture being hard understand. Certainly sight under tree feel content never return ‘oh Loneliness sad heart Queen’. isn’t least that. entry vacillates refusal riffs French expression, ‘la est la reine de mon cœur’, opting less exact translation, ‘loneliness’.16 both authors’ writings them slipping cognates casting amongst clichés express turbulent valences feelings. some passages leave reader profound sense isolation without naming any all, relying instead simultaneously empty pregnant cry ‘oh, oh, oh’.17 ‘move among’ even relinquish ‘names’ search ‘some more appropriate predicate’ shows expressions are, Charles Altieri’s words, ‘a continual struggle inchoateness intelligibility provided our grammars’.18 venture say unique dimension struggle. difficulty expressing do inadequate messy vernacular, fact vernacular necessarily originates community intimation distance difference others craves idiolect. Isolates may themselves same situation theorists Brian Massumi, has sought language directs experiential ‘excess remainder’ does fit into ‘socially lines reactions’ confining categories. Hence, Massumi famously distinguishes socio-linguistic fixing [a] quality experience’, process whereby feelings become ‘owned recognized’ emotions, ‘asignifying’ intensities calls ‘affects’.19 Massumi’s distinction little tidy; Sianne Ngai observes, emotion’ modal intensity degree, rather than formal kind’.20 However, betokens desire distinguish unruliness normative models emerged long historical struggles over diagnostic criteria allow invest ourselves states assessed others. wonder whether speaking uniquely situated observe gap emotion (in opinion, thought-provoking secure) bleed each other. living ‘remainder’ concept towards, unexpected, singular, quirky’ aspects experience generally applicable’.21 Yet if take ownership must engage frameworks qualify particular sorts selves, otherwise. tend squirm little, wonder, since discourses condensed aphorisms lost much pith energy circulation. Faced overdetermined forced navigate ineffable only-ness thorny places singular brush against social. affect, sits precarious boundary private, individual (albeit vested interest preserving it). tends test grammars parameters self, connected ideas authenticity. mean exempt artifice, real pure other feelings, feels exceptionally authentic part self’s most sincere testament. broaches issue Waves, Bernard contrasts his shifting identity, dependent illumination people’s eyes’, authentics’ ‘exist completely solitude’.22 Likewise, relied ‘to puzzle out’ ‘own self’ ‘[w]hat aim state mind soul one. Only me’.23 bring self peak concentration so exist emphatic totality, absorbed ‘that extreme solitude’ temporarily distinctions gauge authenticity parcel zones deemed inviolable (like body, mind, soul).24 while consolidate experienced self-displacement surprise, seizing unawares. specific me, origin. though critics suggest ‘produces individuals’, ‘I’ result.25 ‘solitude’, identity ebb away ‘into deep waters’ oneself something universe left with’.26 pressure evokes, prompting ask stakes indigenous territory legitimately define whether, susceptibility migratory stemming ‘impersonal, “pre-personal” forces’?27 Just linked individual, modernism defined experience. As writes ‘Modern Fiction’, many modernists tried discard conventions commonly observed’ ‘record pattern, however disconnected incoherent appearance, incident scores upon consciousness’.28 They experimental works reflect vibrant flow inner life. partial idea ‘art rediscovery road back self’.29 were sceptical art ‘remains centred which, spite tremor susceptibility, embraces creates what outside itself beyond’.30 famous caveat immediately qualifies record impressions, inspired reviews. year earlier, contended ‘register’ individual’s ‘faint inward shock[s]’, those ‘experiences were, peculiarly theirs’. enclosed within ‘tiny circle’, Fiction’.31 Both authors style capture effect things mind’ yet portray effects affects contemporary parlance), resonances world. Else, ‘“lives alone, / Housed dream, Kind”’.32 Which make, else fit[s] To temper external No longer internal Live minds native home.37 Glossing exquisite ‘fit’ altogether seamless matter nipping tucking, isolates nature simply surrogate society difficult compacts compromises. isolate’s natural world better, organic operates principle complete integration, resolving splits fundamental split permeability hands peaches souls boughs admits barrier difference, raising question pleasures finally autoerotic, voluptuous self-gratification engagement otherness. Marvell exclaims, ‘Fair trees! wheres’e’er barks wound, name found’, actually grafting legend human non-human world?38 heirs tradition, demonstrating familiarity Wordsworth careers. ‘W.W’ ‘people whom want live’ and, ways, ‘live with’ Wordsworth, incorporating ode letters diaries.39 repeated use Wordsworthian motifs explain Woolfs’ conspicuous mistakes typesetting Prelude Hogarth Press; frequently error title, using definite article ‘the’, Wordsworth’s Prelude.40 significant figure intellectual development frequent allusions work show ‘involved “one continuous unexhausted reading” Romantics, particularly childhood end life’.41 restyled twentieth century poet laureate rural echoes poetry heard work.42 invoke images blissful union desolate ‘deserts vast eternity’ contemplate double-edged solitude.43 claimed Marvell’s ‘deserts’ ‘secret’, translating existential threat hovering quotidian experiences.44 conversations past (shaped, perhaps, other), see eminent poets revise, rewrite, disagree them. tease complications tensions earlier paeans for, twentieth-century writers, felt immune consolations. relate sublime lonely wood, empathise Samuel Beckett speaks ‘nature human’ ‘two solitudes’, separated ‘impassable’, ‘unalterable alienness’.45 pangs magnified alleviated) world, coldly forbid elemental unity advanced Wordsworth. offers scholars ‘affect’ proof ‘immersion world’s obstinacies rhythms, refusals invitations’. produces ‘world’s apparent intractability’ yet, see, intractability modest vision affective coexistence offered antecedent texts solitude.46 recurrent expressivity tradition selfhood, relationship These stake current affect’s ‘[b]indings unbindings, becomings un-becomings, jarring disorientations rhythmic attunements’.47 productive dialogue illuminate contains elements sociality engender intimacy. plays crucial role relationship: treading fictions antedating postdating friendship, diaries unlikely shared. imagistic thematic parallels either ‘queer’ clairvoyant connection shared seas time.48 finding thought me joy, dwelling excitement; making appointments, pressing visits, postscripts thanks & affection But last dated December, now February. interests, amuses, slightly, no, very, decidedly pains me. suspect wishing produce precisely emotions still put out. –51 questioned sincerity, pondered ‘insincere-sincere’ affection.52 became bugbear relationship. reputation ‘lies poses’ persuade wanted scrupulously truthful reserves all’, offering send diary.53 ever self-reflexive, believed herself secretive creature bones’ wondered intense sympathies quite sincere.54 She needy passionate, scathing nearest friends (a trait Woolf). November 1919, wrote infamous review second novel, Night Day. Privately, novel lie soul’, failing acknowledge devastating World War I; further, ‘Virginia’ seemed exemplify pompous gentility, seeming ‘curtsey, [and] caper delicate airs bored Hell all’.55 Circumstances account vitriol complaints. Italy winter, sequestered, depressed, wretchedly lonely. enviously compared Woolf’s: ‘no write. There always calm freedom peace roof possessions round man somewhere call’.56 Some months later, reiterated, used Leonard. no-one’.57 bitterness seeped Day ‘saw it. decorous elderly dullard describes me; Jane Austen date’.58 sting compounded failure respond overtures thanks, answers, enquiries’.59 struck cat kind: alien, composed, observant. And then talked found expressed. Whereupon fell step, usual, easily 8 minutes keenly common certain understanding queer ‘like’ …60 What solitude? surmise is, itself, solitary: complement diary. provokes speculation, compressing hints conceptualised First, presents basis bonding, fall isolated accompanied. Might widespread, free-floating constituency feeling? entails conceptualising absolute state, heterogeneous assemblage ‘emotion “cluster”’ incorporates traditional antonyms society, intimacy, communication neutralised them.61 While absolutist language, derive belief utterly unadulterated. Lighthouse, Mr Ramsay son share unspoken ‘was loneliness truth things’.62 insistent repetition, ‘both’, suggests bond two characters cancel loneliness’s force. intriguing parallel, Lighthouse passage unfinished written 1913, shadowy sometimes true life, changeless truth’.63 read manuscript fragment said ‘expressed expressed’? Does concord hark discovery another compatriot May 1920? Inasmuch degrees sociability, implies constitutional, congenital tendency, lending taxonomy ‘cat kind’). mark elect satisfactions, placidly remarks, ‘like distinguished people (it company) sufficient, so’.64 declares prestigious community, lose individuality word, key ‘real’ reiterate pre-established scripts socio-cultural codes. particular, bound ‘entire theatrical dynamic signifying behaviors’ conventions.65 ‘[t]he person acts’; drawn make larger gesture ours declaim, pronounce, exaggerate, (?) (?)’ ‘we acting’. When conversation, tempting spoke illumines fine ‘soul’ ‘livery’ (‘no borrowed plumage’). Did discuss remedial bodying forth interpreted pose?66 suspended conscious life white sky web torn grey it, slipping, sliding, slithering huge cavern selves (who ancient seaweed gatherers) mumbled, indifferent intimate apart carriage grasping cold knob umbrella …68 Here, multiple ‘apart’, hangs aloft bemoans pain divided being. Especially consumed shedding called ‘false’ moments ‘direct personal’.69 recounted during meeting, ‘subterfuges’ generously agreed composed (maybe ‘(more thousand)’) empathised nothing self’, single self’.70 realised experiences diffusion consolidation capacity drift isolation. How strange talking mists rise loses thinks down comes soft final curtain incredible, don’t you feel, mysterious last.71 Accents, patterns, phrases correspondence way ‘Psychology’, story published December 1920 explores special thrilling friendship’ unnamed woman.72 Her plaintive appeal ‘pray rare desires you’, reiterated characters’ extraordinary chance’ truthful’, ‘utterly sincere’.73 Under spoken dialogue, crafts model ideal intimacy; opens ellipses it; sentence filled deictic markers presume proximity shareability ‘this’ requires explanatory gloss. moment, ‘their lay open other’, recalling access strange, trembling, glinting [Woolf’s] mind’.74 suddenly, ‘[t]hey faltered, wavered, broke down’. reason, conversation turns facile ‘chatter’ grinning puppets jigging nothingness’. estrangement given primordial dimension, colluding thwart intimacy: ‘there hunters, bending fire, hearing suddenly jungle beyond shake wind loud, questioning cry’.75 whole ‘dark garden ringed glittering ivy, willows, big bright sky’ pose ‘question’ lasting possible?76 ‘Together Apart’, unpublished ‘Garsington novel’, reiterates oscillation communion loneliness, focusing planes Serle Mrs Anning.77 On level small talk, obvious uncontroversial, following regular affirmation consent. Yet, underlying speech, float ‘capriciously tentacles anemone, thrilled, snubbed’.78 Suddenly, ‘each secluded being, darkness shallow agile companion tumbling beckoning, keeps going, stood erect; flung off cloak; confronted other’.79 midst performance, moment man, false built’, ‘knew perfectly, fact, closely united side stream’.80 Then, just Anning withdrawal paralysing blankness feeling’.81 stories follow rhythm, exploring theatricality relations, thunderous, naked encounter, pang estrangement. Sudden serendipitous, come forces, compromising active powers float, jig, move field leaves alternately trembling enervated. hint longer, indirect re-enacts flows ‘fragmentary intermittent intercourse’, explain.82 renewed accord temporary; July, exclaiming, ‘Heaven knows, manages teeth edge’.83 prompted reassess response ‘Bliss’, ‘so hard, shallow, sentimental rush bookcase drink’.84 Katie Macnamara somewhat intemperate due story’s unflattering portrait Pearl Fulton, Bertha’s unfaithful friend.85 Pearl’s manner ‘sitting head side, smiling’, there ‘something behind it’, recalls picture ‘say[ing], smiling enchanting secret: “Well, Katherine, …”’.86 suspicions Bertha/Mansfield Pearl/Woolf guilty smile, secrets revealed bitter deceits. com diary resisted drawing direct fiction; vitriolic comments ‘callousness hardness’, asking ‘is absurd criticism personally story?’87 ‘Bliss’ undeniably edge, rounds commentary (as migh