The Passage From England

D.H. Lawrence, one of the most renowned twentieth century English writers, is the prolific author of numerous novels, poems, travel books and etc. Feeling disillusioned with the European culture, he began his years of global wandering in 1919, in search of his utopian Rananim.Throughout the 20th century, empire provides many writers such as Rudyard Kipling, E.M. Forster, and Joseph Conrad with a variety of colourful contexts in which characters could be confronted with unfamiliar values or an exiled loneliness sharpening questions about their own identity and certainties of the empire. This study of Lawrence's travel writings approaches the subject by viewing them in the light of Lawrence's feeling of ambivalence. Focusing on the writings of 1922-25, the period when Lawrence was most intensely engaged in traveling, it examines two novels inspired by Lawrence's experience of the New World, namely, Kangaroo and The Plumed Serpent. Lawrence puts a huge investment in using his characters to convey his ideas and thoughts. Therefore,an examination of the two novels and their protagonists'responses to"alien"places and cultures will shed great light on the evolution of Lawrence with particular regard to his attitudes toward imperialism.This thesis is divided into four parts. Chapter One introduces Lawrence the traveler whose experiences in Australia and North America provide him with settings in Kangaroo and The Plumed Serpent. In Chapter Two, I will examine Lawrence's descriptions of Australia as a country and of the Australian people as observed by the novel's protagonist, Richard Somers, and point to the affinities between Somers and Lawrence when the former expressed his mixed feelings about Australia. Chapter Three offers an analysis of the female protagonist of The Plumed Serpent, Kate Leslie. I argue that her prolonged indecision as to whether or not to stay in Mexico reflects to a large extent the author's own uncertainties and ambivalence toward Mexico. The last chapter concludes that Lawrence's attitudes toward the new world followed an attraction-repulsion rhythm though he ultimately underwent a noticeable decolonization of vision.