D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
A selective list of literary criticism for the British poet, novelist, and story writer D.H. Lawrence, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in editor and peer reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Sites
main page | 20th-century literature | modernist fiction | about literaryhistory.com
literary criticism
Balbert, Peter. "Courage at the Border-Line: Balder, Hemingway, and Lawrence's The Captain's Doll" [and Ernest Hemingway]. "No critic has sufficiently focused on this crucial process of the reconstruction of Hepburn's ego {in The Captain's Doll] and energy. It is a transformation best understood first in the light of the emotional changes and idiosyncrasies of the major characters, and then in the context of Lawrence's adaptation of a well-known Scandinavian mythology to frame key aspects of the symbolism and action in the novella." Papers on Language and Literature Summer 2006.
Burack, Charles M. "Revitalizing the reader: literary technique and the language of sacred experience in D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover." Style Spring 1998.
Burden, Robert. "Deconstructing Masculinity," in Radicalizing Lawrence: Critical Interventions in the Reading and Reception of D.H. Lawrence's Narrative Fiction (Rodopi 2000). Preview at Google Books.
Delany, Paul. "'A Would-be-dirty Mind': D.H. Lawrence as an Enemy of Joyce." Delany contrasts D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce.
Delany, Paul. "'Giving your self away': Lawrence's Letters in Context." On the editorial practices in The Cambridge Edition of the Letters and Works of D.H. Lawrence. Delany presents a careful analysis of the principles involved in editing modernist correspondence.
Doherty, Gerald. "The art of appropriation: the rhetoric of sexuality in D.H. Lawrence." Style Summer 1996.
Doherty, Gerald. "Metaphor and mental disturbance: the case of Lady Chatterley's Lover." Style Spring 1996.
Dyson, Donald A. "D.H. Lawrence and the Ethical Approach to Literary Criticism." Poetry Nation 3 (1974).
Edwards, Justin D. "At the End of The Rainbow: Reading Lesbian Identities in D.H. Lawrence's Fiction." International Fiction Review 27, 1/2.
Ellis, David. Publisher's blurb for D.H. Lawrence: Dying Game 1922-1930: The Cambridge Biography of D.H. Lawrence (1998).
Green, Jared F. "Modernism's dirty little secret." Novel: A Forum on Fiction Fall 2001 [first page only].
Howe, Andrew. "Beastly desire: Human/animal interactions in Lawrence's Women in Love." Papers on Language and Literature Fall 2002.
Kendrick, Walter. "A Thing About Men, and a Thing About Women." Discussing Brenda Maddox's biography of Lawrence, Professor Kendrick ponders whether Lawrence was homosexual. NYTimes, 27 Nov. 1994.
Kinkead-Weekes, Mark. A review of D.H. Lawrence: Triumph to Exile 1912-1922. Part of an unusual three-volume biography, in which each volume is written by a different author. Reviewed in Contemporary Review May 1997, by Joan Bridgman.
Maddox, Brenda. A review of The Story of a Marriage (Simon & Schuster 1994), a biography of D.H. Lawrence that approaches him through his marriage to Baroness Frieda von Richthofen Weekley. NYTimes, 14 Nov. 1994.
Neilson, Brett. "D.H. Lawrence's 'Dark Page': narrative primitivism in Women in Love and The Plumed Serpent." Twentieth Century Literature Fall 1997.
Peters, Joan Douglas. "Rhetoric as Idea: D.H. Lawrence's Genre Theory." Style Spring 2000.
Phillips, Ivan. An introduction to D.H. Lawrence, from the Literary Encyclopedia 28 June 2002. On The Rainbow (1915); Women in Love (1920) [subscription service].
Sagar, Keith. A review of The Art of D.H. Lawrence by Keith Sagar and of D.H. Lawrence as Literary Critic by David J. Gordon. Reviewed by V. de S. Pinto, who states "Keith Sagar has produced perhaps the most useful study of Lawrence that has appeared since F.R. Leavis's D.H. Lawrence Novelist."[First page of article only.] The Review of English Studies 18 (Aug. 1967).
Sagar, Keith. A review of D.H. Lawrence's Paintings. Notes the reviewer: "D.H. Lawrence's paintings contain all the raw sexuality promised by his writings, and their nudity duly threw the establishment into turmoil." The Guardian. 8 Nov. 2003.
Smith, Jad. "Völkisch Organicism and the Use of Primitivism in Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent." Smith contends that "using a proto-fascist ideology as subject matter for a novel or depicting an authoritarian leadership cult, even sympathetically at moments, does not necessarily or ultimately indicate an endorsement of fascist politics." D.H. Lawrence Review 30 (2002).
Squires, Michael. "D.H. Lawrence's narrators, sources of knowledge, and the problem of coherence." Criticism Summer 1995.
Stewart, Jack. "Lawrence and the creative process." Style Summer 2003.
Stewart, Jack. "Linguistic incantation and parody in Women in Love." Style Spring 1996.
Thornton, Weldon. A review of D.H. Lawrence: A Study of the Short Fiction (Twayne's Studies in Short Fiction). Says the reviewer, "Thornton has no blunt ideological ax to grind. He firmly believes, however, that Lawrence's moody, evocative, and 'elusive' stories must be 'given the close attention they deserve.'" Covers "Odour of Chrysanthemums," "The Blind Man," and "You Touched Me," "England, My England" and "The Woman Who Rode Away." Reviewed by Brian Murray in Studies in Short Fiction Winter 1996.
Worthen, John. Reviews of D.H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider (Counterpoint 2005). Andrew Motion reviews, and admires Professor Worthen's effort to rehabilitate Lawrence's reputation, but objects that Worthen undervalues Lawrence's poetry. 5 March 2005, The Guardian. Another review, by Elizabeth Tallent in Threepenny Review Spring 2007.Another review, by Francine Prose in the NYTimes.
Lawrence's poetry
Rexroth, Kenneth. "Poetry, Regeneration, and D.H. Lawrence." Rexroth writes, "Lawrence's free verse in Birds, Beasts, and Flowers is among the best ever written." Introduction to D.H. Lawrence's Selected Poems, New Directions, 1947.
"D.H. Lawrence." Academy of American Poets.
"A Brief Guide to Imagism." Academy of American Poets. (Lawrence's connection with the imagist H.D. nearly became intimate, in some fascinating scenes recounted in Barbara Guest's biography of H.D., Herself Defined.)
removed
(removed) Byatt, A.S. "The one bright book of life: D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover." Novelist A.S. Byatt takes on the subject of feminist criticism of Lawrence by Kate Millett, Lawrence's sexism, and his many hostile readers. New Statesman, 16 Dec. 2002.
(removed) Cooper, Catherine. "Ibsen, Lawrence, Galsworthy. Naturalist Drama and Environmental Influences. How the plays of three early modern authors show the influence of the environment on the quality of human life." The views of Ibsen, John Galsworthy, and D.H. Lawrence on the role of the environment in shaping character. London School of Journalism.
(removed) Schapiro, Barbara. "Transitional States and Psychic Change." A psychoanalytic discussion of several female characters in Lawrence. Psyart, 1998.
(removed) McQuien, Paul and Kim G. Hochmeister.
main page | 20th-century literature | modernist fiction | about literaryhistory.com
1998-2011 by Jan Pridmore