The subjective art of D.H. Lawrence : twilight in Italy

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that by the time of Twilight in Italy Lawrence had learned to exploit a subjective coherence, to give the strong impression of his actively following his intuitions on the page, arriving at ideas. Proceeding by analysis of the speech-like rhythms of Lawrence's prose and his deliberate loosening of grammatical bonds, the thesis demonstrates how Lawrence's "personal participation" in his prose elicits a corresponding response on the reader's part that licences the author's large interpretative strides of thought. This movement is facilitated by his habit, in Twilight, of isolating his subjects as if on a stage, rendering them more open to unrestricted interpretation, and by his mastery (since The Rainbow) of the hyperbolic language of the subconscious. To accommodate the ensuing amplitude of meaning it became necessary to polarise his subject matter, thereby taking it - whether personal psychology or racial tendency - to its extreme expression where an ultimate clarity was to be found •. (Chapter 2 argues that his 1914 revision of The Prussian Officer Stories first established polarity as a literary form.) However, there is a cost (which the thirties critics at least registered: Chapter 1): that in storming experience Lawrence pushes aside, if need be, the ordinary and everyday but makes, in his impressive formulations, no admission of having done so. Independent observation at Lake Garda and in the Tyrol (Appendices 1 -4) confirmed the existence of this "Lawrence paradox" - which Chapters 3 - 5 demonstrate, enacting a dialogue between sympathetic and "30's~critic" antipathetic points of view. The thesis also: takes into account and dates the early ~B and published versions; identifies - with photographs and maps - most of the crucifixes, and the places mentioned in the Garda chapters; provides information gathered from descendants of the original "characters": and identifies the Futurist works Lawrence read.