| The purpose of this dissertation on D. H. Lawrence which consists of two parts is to demonstrate unique features of both of his poetry and fiction: Part One is devoted to Lawrence's poetry and Part Two to his novels and novellas. Part One entitled "D. H. Lawrence's Poetry: With Special Emphasis on Darkness and Light" pays special attention to the image of darkness as ultimate source of life or mystery of life in contrast with light in his poems and establishes close relationship between Lawrence's darkness image and early Greek philosophy, Christian mysticism, metaphysical poetry of the 17th century England, and Christian hymns. The early Greek philosophers, Christian mystics, metaphysical poets and Christian hymn books that are referred to in the discussion of the religious feature of Lawrence's darkness image are Parmenides, Heracleitos, Dionysius the Areopagite, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross. Thomas Traherne, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert, Congregational Church Hymnal, Methodist Hymn Book, and Sacred Songs and Solos. Part Two entitled "D. H. Lawrence and the World of Deities" deals with his novels and novellas, such as The White Peacock, Kangaroo, The Plumed Serpent, Lady Chatterley's Lover. St. Mawr, and The Escaped Cock, and demonstrates the unique treatment of pagan deities, such as Pan, Dryad, Spirit of Place, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, Isis or Osiris in these works. As Lawrence says in one of his poems, "All Sorts of Gods," not only the Christian God but also pagan deities are living ones for him, and Part Two clarifies the living relationships between characters and deities in his novels and novellas. The discussion indicates that his vision of pagan deities can be attributed to his own perception nurtured in 'the country of my heart' and other lands where he travelled, as well as to his wide-ranging reading of various folkloric and mythological works, especially J. G. Frazer's The Golden Bough and Totemism and Exogamy, both of which were influential works for Lawrence. Thus this dissertation elucidates those unique features of his poems and fictional works which received the least attention in the past Lawrence scholarship. |
