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Listen "Lara Feigel - Lady Chatterley, woman and sexuality"
Episode Synopsis
As far as Lawrence’s reputation was concerned, the trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover rightly established him as a crucial figure in shaping modern attitudes to sex.
About Lara Feigel
"I am Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at King’s College London.
I am the author of four works of cultural history in which I explore the relationship between works of literature, the times they’re written in, the impact of history on the books and the lives of the creators of the books, and how both the life shapes the work and the work shapes the life."
D.H. Lawrence, the ostracised figure
While Lawrence was alive, he provoked extremely strong reactions amongst women readers, both women he knew and women who read him. This has carried on, for more than almost any other male writer, right through the decades until today.
Just after Lawrence’s death came one of the first books about him, a study by Anaïs Nin, who said it was the first time that a man had so wholly and completely expressed women accurately – a huge thing to say. Quite soon after the backlash began, we got Simone de Beauvoir, in The Second Sex, rather movingly describing her distress at realising that she fell for what she called Lawrence’s “cosmic optimism”. She had rather loved some of what seemed to her, initially, like mutual encounters between men and women. She then decided that Lawrence passionately believed in male supremacy. You can really feel the disappointment in her writing as she comes to that conclusion.
De Beauvoir was followed by more certain pronouncements of Kate Millett in her 1970 book Sexual Politics, where she castigated Lawrence for what she calls his personal cult, ‘The Mystery of the Phallus’. In the wake of Millett’s book, Lawrence is torn from university syllabuses. It was increasingly hard for women to admire Lawrence. He became someone to be ashamed of liking, although he himself would disapprove of us feeling ashamed of anything. He became quite an ostracised figure.
Key Points
• D.H. Lawrence evoked strong opposing reactions from women who read his works. Part of what makes women respond so intensely to Lawrence is his modern female characters, some of whom were inspired by his wife, Frieda.
• Lawrence saw the unconscious as a bodily organ that hadn’t had enough free play, and he thought that we became too driven by our will rather than by an ease and instinct. Sex was only one aspect of that.
• As far as Lawrence’s reputation was concerned, the trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover rightly established him as a crucial figure in shaping modern attitudes to sex.
About Lara Feigel
"I am Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at King’s College London.
I am the author of four works of cultural history in which I explore the relationship between works of literature, the times they’re written in, the impact of history on the books and the lives of the creators of the books, and how both the life shapes the work and the work shapes the life."
D.H. Lawrence, the ostracised figure
While Lawrence was alive, he provoked extremely strong reactions amongst women readers, both women he knew and women who read him. This has carried on, for more than almost any other male writer, right through the decades until today.
Just after Lawrence’s death came one of the first books about him, a study by Anaïs Nin, who said it was the first time that a man had so wholly and completely expressed women accurately – a huge thing to say. Quite soon after the backlash began, we got Simone de Beauvoir, in The Second Sex, rather movingly describing her distress at realising that she fell for what she called Lawrence’s “cosmic optimism”. She had rather loved some of what seemed to her, initially, like mutual encounters between men and women. She then decided that Lawrence passionately believed in male supremacy. You can really feel the disappointment in her writing as she comes to that conclusion.
De Beauvoir was followed by more certain pronouncements of Kate Millett in her 1970 book Sexual Politics, where she castigated Lawrence for what she calls his personal cult, ‘The Mystery of the Phallus’. In the wake of Millett’s book, Lawrence is torn from university syllabuses. It was increasingly hard for women to admire Lawrence. He became someone to be ashamed of liking, although he himself would disapprove of us feeling ashamed of anything. He became quite an ostracised figure.
Key Points
• D.H. Lawrence evoked strong opposing reactions from women who read his works. Part of what makes women respond so intensely to Lawrence is his modern female characters, some of whom were inspired by his wife, Frieda.
• Lawrence saw the unconscious as a bodily organ that hadn’t had enough free play, and he thought that we became too driven by our will rather than by an ease and instinct. Sex was only one aspect of that.
• As far as Lawrence’s reputation was concerned, the trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover rightly established him as a crucial figure in shaping modern attitudes to sex.
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