Writing the Body in D.H. Lawrence: Essays on Language, Representation, and Sexuality

One of Lawrence’s main concerns in his art was to explore and experiment with new ways of writing about the body. But with one or two notable exceptions, few critics have systematically interrogated the broader ramifications of this concern, especially in terms of contemporary theoretical debates about language, representation and sexuality. This book remedies that situation by considering some of the social, cultural and ideological contexts of Lawrence’s writings of the body and by engaging closely with his texts from a range of pertinent theoretical positions. The essays included in this volume are written by experts from around the world. The contributors provide detailed discussions of specific major works by Lawrence and employ theoretical approaches which give special attention to language, representation and sexuality, including postmodernism, Marxism, structuralism, the sociology of censorship, Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, feminism and gender studies, and narrative theory. While Lawrence’s major novels and short stories provide the main focus for the volume, the book also examines his lesser-known writings, including unfinished story fragments, introductions and forewords, and literary and journalistic essays.