Reiko Kamiishida
The Paradox in Lawrence's Speculative Writings: 20th Century Anti-Idealism of Bergson, William James and D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence refused to fix life through ideas. Throughout his various writings, he persisted in denying absolute ideas and pursued instead 'the living relationship' between humans and animals. In one of his essays, he says "The novel is a perfect medium for revealing to us the changing rainbow of our living relationships." Lawrence, however, did not utterly abandon "the Absolute."In his speculative writings, a perpetual and complicated conflict evolves between the absolute and the relative.Lawrence's language is destined to fall into paradox because it puts relativity in the place of the ideal absolute. After all, he cannot do without replacing the Absolute Idea with the transcendental Origin from which all mutable things flow.
This essay will study his highly speculative writings on the absolute and relativity, and on the origin of being.It will end by examining the paradox of his representation. The essays "The Crown" (1915), which belongs to his early period, and "The Novel"(1925), "Him with His Tail in His Mouth"(1925), which he produced in his maturity, will be compared in order to trace the change in his ways of thinking.In order to understand the cultural background behind Lawrence's anti-idealism, Einstein's theory of relativity and the philosophy of Henri Bergson and William James will be taken into consideration.