D. H. Lawrence’s Language of Sacred Experience

The Transfiguration of the Reader

C. Burack

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN:
  9781403968456
• eBook ISBN:
  9781403978240
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

This book demonstrates how D.H. Lawrence's prophetic ambitions impelled him to create novels that would radically transform the consciousness of his readers. Charles Burack argues that Lawrence's major novels, beginning with The Rainbow , are structured as religious initiation rites that attempt to break down the reader's normative mindset and to evoke new, numinous experiences of self and world. Through careful analysis of narrative structure, literary technique, and sacred discourses, Burack shows that Lawrence tries to initiate the reader into his own version of religious vitalism. Unlike most initiations that conclude with powerful affirmations, Lawrence's novels generally end with an attempt to subvert the formation of new religious dogmas and to encourage sacred-erotic exploration.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One The Destruction Phase of Lady Chatterley’s Lover
• Chapter Two The Revitalization Phase of Lady Chatterley’s Lover
• Chapter Three Transformative Uses of Kabbalistic Concepts and Terms in The Rainbow
• Chapter Four Mechanistic and Yogic Discourses in Women in Love
• Chapter Five The Implosion of the Transformative Pattern in The Plumed Serpent
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index