'Bergson saw in the words and writings of prophets and great artists the creation of an "open morality", which was itself an expression of what he called the élan vital, or evolutionary "life force." Prophets and artists tend to be liminal and marginal people, "edgemen," who strive with a passionate sincerity to rid themselves of the clichés associated with status incumbency and role-playing and to enter into vital relations with other men in fact or imagination.'
Angela Smith
Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf: A Public of Two
