Becket, Fiona, 1962- (1992) Metaphor and "metaphysic" : the sense of language in D.H. Lawrence. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study contributes to the contemporary debate about the language of D. H. Lawrence concentrating on metaphor as the necessary vehicle of Lawrence's 'metaphysic'. The focus is on the different levels of attention to language in his work, and to Lawrence's responsiveness to the levels of metaphor within language. Lawrence is seen here as one who, in the Heideggerean sense, 'poetically thinks'. The texts outlined below are given special consideration, representing a particular body of language and thought within Lawrence's oeuvre Chapter 1 outlines the purpose of the study and establishes the Importance of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Paul Ricoeur on language, specifically metaphor, in setting up the necessary philosophical context for discussion of Lawrence. Chapter 2 addresses the selfconsciously metaphorical language of the nominally 'discursive' essays, Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious and Fantasia of the Unconscious, underlining Lawrence's alertness to the efficacy of metaphor rather than a referential or conceptual idiom. Fresh emphasis is given to Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious as a central text in the language debate. The insights afforded by these essays make it possible to move to the fiction and, in chapter 3, to Women in Love. Here the thesis builds on Lawrence's philosophical understanding of the concept 'metaphor': in this novel, principally through a consideration of 'love', Lawrence is seen to pull metaphor away from its merely rhetorical status. Chapter 4 examines the different mode and language of The Rainbow focusing on its more enveloping, less 'frictional', medium. By chapter 5, called 'Lawrence and Language', the philosophical questions which emerge from a reading of these texts can be addressed more explicitly. Finally, a conclusion underlines the difficulties of talking about language stressing the importance, implicit throughout, of reading Lawrence on his own terms. The conscious and subliminal levels of metaphor within Lawrence's language have been seen to bear his thought. What philosophy generally explains analytically, Lawrence's language communicates metaphorically.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930 -- Literary style, Metaphor, Metaphysics
Date:	September 1992
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Bell, Michael, 1941-
Sponsors:	British Academy
Extent:	vi, 330 leaves
Language:	eng
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/36068

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