D. H. Lawrence's Manichean Discourse or Janus-like Vision: Dualism vs. Holism

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject English - Literature, Works, , course: Modern British Literature, language: English, abstract: In his introduction to Fantasia of the unconscious and psychoanalysis and the unconscious, Lawrence acknowledges that many heterogeneous influences - Eastern philosophies, religions, and mysticisms - have given shape to his intuitive insights and determined his worldview. To peruse the discourse that underlies this vision, it is interesting to submit Lawrence's rhetoric, as it appears in his non-fictional writings (essays, criticisms, theories, etc.), to a 'structuralist poetic' scrutiny and expose the intrinsic mechanics of his discourse to a deeper 'post-structuralist', de-consrtructivist reading. For Jonathan Culler, no matter the positioning of the reader, it is almost always inescapable for him or her not to grapple with a close reading of the text: 'Whatever critical affiliations we may proclaim, we are all New Critics, in that it requires a strenuous effort to escape notions of the autonomy of the literary work, the importance of demonstrating its unity, and the requirement of 'close reading''.