D. H. Lawrence, Ecofeminism and Nature by Gifford, Terry;

Short description:

This is the first ecocritical book on the works of D. H. Lawrence and also the first to consider the links between nature and gender in the poetry and the novels.

Long description:

Shortlisted for the ASLE-UKI Prize for Best Academic Monograph

This is the first ecocritical book on the works of D. H. Lawrence and also the first to consider the links between nature and gender in the poetry and the novels. In his search for a balanced relationship between male and female characters, what role does nature play in the challenges Lawrence offers his readers? How far are the anxieties of his characters in negotiating relationships that might threaten their sense of self derived from the same source as their anxieties about engaging with the Other in nature? Indeed, might Lawrence’s metaphors drawn from nature actually be the causes of human actions in The Rainbow, for example? The originality of Lawrence’s poetic and narrative strategies for challenging social attitudes towards both nature and gender can be revealed by new approaches offered by ecocritical theory and ecofeminist readings of his books. This book explores ecocritical notions to frame its ecofeminist readings, from the difference between the ‘Other’ and ‘otherness’ in The White Peacock and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, ‘anotherness’ in the poetry of Birds, Beasts and Flowers, psychogeography in Sea and Sardinia, emergent ecofeminism in Sons and Lovers, land and gender in The Boy in the Bush, gender dialogics in Kangaroo, human animality in Women in Love, trees as tests in Aaron’s Rod, to ‘radical animism’ in The Plumed Serpent. Finally, three late tales provide a reassessment of ecofeminist insights into Lawrence’s work for readers in the present context of the Anthropocene.

"Terry Gifford has most inventively shed a radical new creative light on the Lawrentian oeuvre, one which draws with imagination, energy and insight on both recent feminist and ecocritical theory to create a study which opens up original and fertile new ways of interpreting this central twentieth-century oeuvre."

--Roger Ebbatson, Lancaster University

“D. H. Lawrence, Ecofeminism and Nature is the first distinctly theoretically-informed ecocritical book to discuss the integration of nature and gender in fresh close readings of Lawrence’s works across multiple genres… writings such as Apocalypse, among many others cited in this considered and impassioned study, attest to Gifford’s call for the broader recognition of Lawrence as a significant and prescient voice in twentieth-century thought on ecology and reaffirms the ethical importance of his writing.”

--Annalise Grice, Nottingham Trent University

“Gifford provides a panoramic view of Lawrence’s oeuvre through 14 compact chapters, moving freely between the different genres Lawrence engaged in, from poetry to novels, short stories and non-fiction, presenting them thematically rather than chronologically. [A] nuanced and insightful  analysis.”

--Julia Kuznetski (née Tofantšuk), Tallinn University, Estonia

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Gender Fluidity in The Trespasser

Chapter 3 ‘Other’ and ‘other’ in The White Peacock and Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Chapter 4 ‘Anotherness’ in Birds, Beasts and Flowers

Chapter 5 Psychogeography in Sea and Sardinia

Chapter 6 The Gender Agenda of The Lost Girl

Chapter 7 Initiation in ‘The Female Element’ in Sons and Lovers

Chapter 8 Land and Gender in The Boy in the Bush

Chapter 9 Gender Dialogics in Kangaroo

Chapter 10 Human Animality in Women in Love

Chapter 11 Organic Metaphor as Mutual Agency in The Rainbow

Chapter 12 Tested by Trees in Aaron’s Rod

Chapter 13 Radical Animism in The Plumed Serpent

Chapter 14 Ecofeminism in the Anthropocene: Three Late Tales