"Katherine Mansfield about Katherine Mansfield”: Rhetorical Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Terribly Sensitive Mind

Abstract

This article proposes a rhetorical analysis of ‘‘A Terribly Sensitive Mind’’, an essay by Virginia Woolf that reviews Katherine Mansfield’s diary and praises her figure after her death. The argumentative nature of Woolf’s essay can be assessed following a rhetorical model of analysis in which I examine (1) the inventive level (inventio), related to the generation of arguments; (2) the dispositive level (dispositio), concerned with a specific arrangement of ideas devised to gain the audience’s adherence; and (3) the elocutive level (elocutio), traditionally associated with the recognition of stylistic features such as rhetorical figures. The interaction among inventive, dispositive, and elocutive elements allows the identification of first-order effects in the form of arguments and rhetorical figures that can come together and result in an interpretation of presence. This form of presence can help to explain why ‘‘A Terribly Sensitive Mind’’ is expressive.