Bliss

"Bliss," written and published in 1918, is a modernist short story, associated with the literary modernism movement in which Katherine Mansfield played a leading role. In the early twentieth century, writers in America and Europe (including contemporaries of Mansfield like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf) helped to pioneer a new style of fiction that focused mainly on interiority and character psychology, attending closely to the substance of everyday lives and events and often jettisoning traditional narratives altogether. Very little seems to take place in "Bliss," at least in comparison to the sweeping plots found in 19th-century literature, with its focus on quests, romance, and history. Instead, "Bliss"—written in the close third-person—centers on Bertha's own reflections, observations, and emotions.