“A Wonderfully Good Imitation of Other Occasions”: About Imitation, Creation and the Phatic Function of Language in Psychology by Katherine Mansfield

Joanna Wawrzyńska

Abstract

The study focuses on Katherine Manfield’s short story entitled Psychology. A detailed
analysis and interpretation aim at clarification what is missing in the story, as while reading
the story one may feel the lack of something. The main character (“she”) has two guests
who are parallel to each other and thus the story can be divided into two parts. Thanks to the
second visit (of her female friend) the main character regains the peace of mind, which was
ruined by man’s (the first guest’s) deviating from the established code of conduct in their
relationship. Definitely, in the text the dominating function is the phatic function of language.
However, it does not work as an introduction to a conversation but it is the conversation
itself. The story builds a world in which there is no real contact between the characters
and it may be interpreted as a reflection of a superfluous reading of a literary work of art.

Nonetheless, the story invites the reader to the more careful reception of the literary text,
paradoxically, by means of, among others, such a simple plot, a visible discrepancy between
the open dialogues and the utterances of “secret selves”, autothematic allusions and the lack
of the diachronic dimension.