짧은 형식의 충만함: 캐서린 맨스필드의 「만에서」와 모더니즘 단편소설 미학

Abstract

This paper reframes the modernist short story not as a deficient, unfinished form but as an autonomous aesthetics of surface plenitude. Through a close reading of Katherine Mansfield’s “At the Bay,” I show how brief rhythms, abrupt shifts, vignette composition, and sonic patterning convert distraction into a cognitive structure and aesthetic resource. The narrative suspends depth hierarchies to stage the non-hierarchical co-presence of sensory elements, realizing a miniature, moment-based ontology. Mansfield’s craftsmanship models a performative, embodied reading that produces meaning without recourse to grand narratives. The argument repositions the short form’s status and resonates with today’s screen-based short-form culture.