The Currents Of Primitivism With A Case Study Of D.H.Lawrence

The discussions circling around primitivism have emerged for a long time,yet there is no final conception of this modernistic literary theory. Inthe west, the academia's interest in primitive and primitivism is switchedto the direction of constructing it as a specific subject. With more anddeeper researches, the contemporary scholars'understanding of primitivismturns from the original onefold knowledge of primitive culture to amulti-folded transfixion of the modern culture and the primitive one. Asa matter of fact, the people in the modern cultural context show increasingtendency towards the primitivism. It results in numerous researches on thepreferences, the aesthetic styles and the comparison of the richsignificances of primitivism. This thesis holds that primitivism is theconbined product of the various cultures with diverged sources,psychological qualities and the modern writers'meditations on the westernculture, with an aim to unfold the distorted life force in the modern societyand attain a relaxed situation where one relies freely on the nature. Thepreferences of primtivism have been more or less manifested, in an obviousor concealed way, in all modern literary schools, even before them. Thisthesis makes D. H. Lawrence a case study of primitivism, who is arepresentative in this aspect, and explores preferences and features ofprimitivism displayed in his works, expecting to exhibit the general pictureof primitivism.This thesis is divided into the four chapters on the base of primitivismand the primitive preferences in D. H. Lawrence's works. Chapter One is the general introduction. On the base of the formerstudies, it analyzes the origin of primitivism from the angle of socialbackgrounds and literary development and summerizes the development and thepresent situation of primitivism. Chapter Two discusses the primtivistic preferences with Lawrence'sworks as examples. While analyzing Lawrence's works, it summerizes thepreferences of primtivism consist of the discovery of subconsciousne, thesummons of hearty life force, worship of genitalia and war between the twosexes, allusion and recreation of mythological materials, infatuation onoffstream cultures and seeking for a dreamworld. Chapter Three is the features of primitivistic literature. This partconnects modern literature and the primitive cultural thoughts to discoverthe latter's underlying influences and the successive relationship betweenthem, via which it rereads the primitivistic literature in the moderncultural context and summerizes its ideastic and aesthetic characteristics. Chapter Four discusses the ontological significance of primtivism. Theexistence of numerous primitivistic preferences in literature lies in thatliterature consistently concerns about the living situation of human beingsthroughout its development, where human beings are the nucleus and theydisplay their ontological significances in their world of arts, making clearto all the extrinsic movement and the intrinsic depth of literature. As aresult, it is necessary to seek the metaphysical significance of theprimitivistic preferences in literature. Literary arts focuses on the anima from its very beginning and ittransforms the attention to the existance of anima to the concerns for theprimitive so that we can have a in-depth comprehension of the situation ofthe original being. To some extent, arts guides, enriches and enhances life.Judging from this point, although primitivism is still yet to be unwrapedand fathomed, it resembles the current of life inside the body of literatureand lives a never-ending life. Accordingly, the researches on it is of greatimportance.