International Journal of Applied Linguistics and Translation 2018; 4(1): 18-25 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijalt doi: 10.11648/j.ijalt.20180401.13 ISSN: 2472-1166 (Print); ISSN: 2472-1271 (Online) The Concept of Time in the Stories of Katherine Mansfield Maryam Jafari 1, * , Fatemeh Sadat Basirizadeh 2 1 Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran 2 Young Researchers and Elite Club, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Email address: * Corresponding author To cite this article: Maryam Jafari, Fatemeh Sadat Basirizadeh. The Concept of Time in the Stories of Katherine Mansfield. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and Translation. Vol. 4, No. 1, 2018, pp. 18-25. doi: 10.11648/j.ijalt.20180401.13 Received: February 3, 2018; Accepted: April 2, 2018; Published: May 21, 2018 Abstract: Modernism brought with itself a great change to the philosophical and scientific ideas. Philosophies about time were not free from this change and the French philosopher Henri Bergson reinterpreted time. He divided time into specialized (linear time) and duration. The artists and the writers of the modern era were much influenced by these ideas and Katherine Mansfield was among this group. She made use of new techniques and methods in order to write her short stories. One of the important characteristic of her stories is the shift in time that she uses, and plunging into the consciousness of her characters in order to show their inner time and world. Her characters are either rooted in their past and totally forget about linear time, or they are slaves of the linear time allowing it to influence their life. Her stories show that some people fit very well with the clock and some do not. Her characters perceive time differently according to the age and social conditions that they are living in. The aim of this study is to explore how Mansfield deals with time in her stories and what methods she uses to demonstrate time in them from Bergson’s point of view. It will also investigate the significance of time for her characters and will show whether they can fit with the clock or not. Finally, it will analyze how being in a certain age and class will affect the way people perceive time. Keywords: Short Story, Modernism, Time Linear, Time Duration 1. Introduction Mansfield`s stories were recognized as rejecting the plotted action of nineteenth century short fiction and the center of her stories are on the question of character and personal identity. In fact her stories often focus on moments of disruption and frequently open rather abruptly. In Mansfield’s hands the short story became a common modernist genre, capturing the troubled spirit of the age, and displaying an early and effective use of modernist techniques such as the internal monologue, stream of consciousness and so on. She believed that true art must be a revelation that communicates the initial emotion felt by the artist to the reader. Her style is characterized by indirection where the characters thoughts are shown by suggestion and symbolism. Mansfield’s stories focus on the question of character and personal identity by using complex and uncertain view of personality, an emphasis on impersonal identity, determined by different social forces. Poplawski says “Her nonlinear handling of time in the stories […] deserves mention as a significant modernist innovation, for the narrative moves backwards and forwards, temporally in harmony with the thought and memories of the central characters” [qtd. in Joetz 11]. Mansfield as a modernist writer enjoys experimenting with different stylistic methods of showing consciousness. Most of her stories focus on the conflicts and frustration of woman’s life in a new liberated age. She frequently criticizes male oppression and female suffering. Joetze describes her lyrical writing as characterized by the relationship between parents and children, wives and husbands as well as siblings and among children. She impressively manages to narrate the psyches of uneducated working woman and young children to businessman and domineering matriarchs (13). One of the most important issues for Mansfield’s stories are concerned with the notion of time, and the inner life of her characters (duration). She usually tends to show time in her stories by her characters inner times and experiences. If there is any time in her stories there are many shifts in them, plunging