Metaphor And Metonymy Of Colours In The Short Stories Of D.H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) was one of the greatest figures in twentieth-century English literature. Many of his works deal with issues of the dualistic balances between men and men, men and women, men and nature, human beings and the civilizations, etc. And generally the academic topics concerned can be categorized as follows:thematically, Lawrence's attitude towards these dualistic balances, and the opposite, unbalances existing in modern society were discussed in the perspectives like historical background, Marxism, feminism, etc; stylistically, the critics were mainly concerned about the narrative techniques like the use of images, symbols and motifs and some other techniques which labeled Lawrence as a modernist writer. It is quite interesting that few of the critical essays or books have analyzed in detail the colour usage in Lawrence's fictions, though the chromatic terms prevail nearly every piece of his writings. Even fewer answered the questions as to why Lawrence strenuously depicted the colours, and what are the reasons behind this kind of colour usage. In that case, this thesis will try to give an answer to these questions.Colours in visual art belong to the system of signs, which means they have all the semiotic characteristics, therefore making an access to them by applying Jakobson's theory of metaphor and metonymy is feasible and reasonable. Colours, on one hand, are highly metaphoric, for they bear a variety of connotations; on the other hand, colours as a method to imitate the natural world can be regarded as metonymic. Given that it is impossible to analyze all of Lawrence's fictional works this thesis will mainly focus on Lawrence's short fictions and interpret them in a chromatic approach, seeking to highlight aspects of Lawrence's short fiction which we may have overlooked and add another dimension to the reading and make the reader more aware of the stylistic, strategic and biographical reasons which would give us further insight into Lawrence's techniques, concerns and objectives.