Primitivism and Nature, Entangled: An Intellectual History of D.H. Lawrence's Writing (1907-1930)

Abstract

This dissertation explores the intersections of colonialism, gender, and indigeneity through D.H. Lawrence’s experiences and writing. It focuses on the interaction between his literature and his perception of modern society as in crisis. Through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on botany, decolonial studies, history, and queer studies, I interrogate the transformative potential of Lawrence’s conceptualization of “nature” to transform knowledge and remedy the self. Lawrence serves as a case study for understanding how coloniality and constructions of indigeneity shaped early twentieth-century perceptions of the “natural” world. At first, for Lawrence, “nature” meant botany and plants, which enabled him to produce fleetingly radical ideas about the gender transgressive self. Later, however, his engagement with anthropology and history led him to associate “nature” with Native peoples—a correlation that reinscribed coloniality in his writings, even as he sought emancipatory horizons.