D. H. Lawrence and the Bible

Description

The Bible, as this book demonstrates, plays a key role in nearly all D. H. Lawrence's work. It supplies not only the inspiration but on occasion the target for his parody. Wright establishes that Lawrence was familiar with the modernist critique of the Bible by higher critics and by anthropologists of religion. He also argues, however, that Lawrence's playful reworking of the Bible, like that of Nietzsche, anticipates postmodernism. After considering the extraordinary range of Lawrence's reading and the intertexts between the Bible and his own writing, Wright engages in a theoretically informed but clear exploration of the textual dynamics of Lawrence's writing. His writing is seen to reveal a prolonged struggle to read the Bible in a much broader spirit than that encouraged by orthodox Christianity. Wright's study sheds light not only on Lawrence's work but on the Bible and on the creative process itself.

"It is good to see Wright turn his considerable knowledge to Lawrence... He has a scrupulous sense of Lawrence's biography and publishing history... I would recommend this book to students and Lawrence scholars." D.H. Lawrence Review "Wright's long-overdue study addresses a crucial, heretofore neglected aspect of Lawrence's canon..." Choice "T.R. Wright 's book install renewed respect both for the Bible's continuing resonance and for the ways in which that resonance shape s creative and critical writing alike...this study will prove very useful to readers interested in Lawrence, the Bible, and, most importantly, their fruitful intersection." English Literature in Transition 2002