(An outsider in the New Zealand bush : “The Woman at the Store” and Mansfield’s reflections on identity)

"The Woman at the Store" is the first of Katherine Mansfield’s short stories set in the New Zealand bush. Its depiction of life in the bush points to a profound reflection on Mansfield’s part upon the question of identity. First of all, Mansfield probes into the status of all white New Zealanders as "outsiders" who had come with the British colonial invasion. Then,she gives her reflections on her migrant identity in the UK through looking back on her experience as a white outsider in New Zealand. Finally, Mansfield discovers in the New Zealand bush a unique art form that tells her apart from both traditional realists and European modernists in general. These reflections on her identity as an outsider directly contributed to the making of Mansfield for a most eminent career