Environmental Consciousness in D. H. Lawrence's Novels
Environmental Consciousness in D. H. Lawrence's Novels

Summary/Abstract: For D. H. Lawrence, nature and the environment were a major source of inspiration. The author waged a war against the Machine Age and its utilitarianism, the profit-logic of which was utterly detrimental to both humans and nature. This article suggests that D. H. Lawrence’s work represents a prime example of new environmental consciousness in literature. In order to unpack environmental consciousness in D. H. Lawrence’s novels, I address three major issues. Firstly, I analyse Lawrence’s idea of balance between nature and culture. Then, I discuss his concept of reawakening to humanity’s primordial connection with the non-human world and nature. Finally, I detect the traces of ‘future primitive’ in his novels, which entails an imagined alternative reality that would not be based exclusively on scientific rationality, but rather include all the non-rational experience of the non-human realm.

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