Марк Тейлор: “Evolution and the Novels of D.H. Lawrence: Science as a Context for Literature”

Mark Taylor
(Shool of Philology, HSE)

“ Evolution and the Novels of D.H. Lawrence: Science as a Context for Literature ”

Guests from outside the HSE should contact Pavel Uspenskiy (puspenskiy@hse.ru ) to attend the lecture. 

Brief abstract:

In an essay of 1923, the English modernist writer D.H. Lawrence makes the claim that a reader should 'never trust the artist,' but should instead 'trust the tale.'

For those seeking to study literature in its context, the maxim neatly encapsulates a valuable consciousness. Author and text might offer distinct positions for many reasons. A writer might use literature to voice thoughts he or she would not openly express, or to explore ideas he or she might not be able to fully articulate.

With respect to Lawrence himself, artist and tale contradict one another with respect to evolution. Though Lawrence once declared that 'there is no such thing as evolution,' metaphors and structures apparently rooted in evolutionary theory recur in his work. This talk will use the example of two of Lawrence's novels, Aaron's Rod (1922) and Kangaroo (1923), to exemplify a contextual perspective centred upon evolutionary theory. This talk suggests that structures from the evolutionary writing of the French thinker Henri Bergson can be traced in these two novels, and that this can aid in comprehending the challenging, fractured narratives of these works.