Tracing the development of Katherine Mansfield's short story, "Poison" (1920), from the manuscript to the typescript, this presentation will draw on Mansfield's life and letters and use close textual analysis to illuminate veiled allusions to Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," allusions that suggest she sought not only to undermine Browning's overbearing Duke but also to exact revenge on her husband, John Middleton Murry.
Participants who would like to read the story prior to the colloquium can find a pdf version on the Katherine Mansfield Society website: http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/short-stories-by-katherine-mansfield/