The Aesthetic Philosophy of D.H. Lawrence

In D.H. Lawrences Women in Love Rupert Birkin tells Ursula Brangwen that the children drawing pictures of catkins need to use their crayons to fill in the colors of the flowers, instead of penciling their hard shapes and outlines. "Id chalk them in plain, chalk in nothing else, merely the red and the yellow," he declares. This book examines Lawrences complex philosophy of art and life, revealing his steady commitment to the experience of the beautiful as a foundation of morality. The core idea is that aesthetic morality is not abstract but immediate, even visceral, and potential in all of us. It follows this fundamental insight through his many forms of writing - letters, novels, and essays - to provide a new intellectual biography of Lawrence, reminding the reader of the ways in which particular events of his life influenced his thinking and writing. By inviting attention to the enduring importance of aesthetic experience in Lawrences work, this book enriches Lawrence studies and contributes to the ongoing revival of interest in aesthetics among contemporary literary critics and theorists like Elaine Scarry and Richard Rorty.