Self-exploration In The Alien Land:Studies Of D.H.Lawrence’s Travel Writings

As a prominent and also a controversial writer in twentieth-century English literature, D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) never fails to fascinate critics. Lawrence’s life is closely related to travel, but his travel writings have been neglected for quite a long time. The four beautiful travel books of Lawrence truthfully record his elatedness as well as bitterness on encountering the cultural differences. This thesis explores Lawrence’s emotional changes reflected in his four travel books and proposes that Lawrence’s travel experiences in the alien land are intertwined with his self-exploration. The four travel writings actually share a paradigm. That is Lawrence’s attitude towards the alien land actually witnesses three stages:fascination-disillusionment-reconciliation.Chapter One is the introduction part, in which I outline Lawrence’s travel experiences abroad and the writing background of his four travel books. This part also contains the literature review on the research of Lawrence’s travel books both home and abroad, which paves the way for the subsequent argument. Chapter Two elaborates Lawrence’s obsession with the alien landscape and the indigenous people. This part underlines Lawrence’s sense of relief by analyzing the recurrent DOWN image schema and the open space in the four travel writings. It also takes account of Lawrence’s fascination to the primitive attribute of the native. Chapter Three expounds on Lawrence’s expatriate struggle and disillusionment. As Lawrence explores deeper in the alien land, he realizes both Italy and Mexico are witnessing mechanization. The impassable gap between self and other also contributes to Lawrence’s expatriate perplexity. Chapter Four challenges to delineate the "eternal travel" at the end of each travel writing. It then extends to Lawrence’s dualistic vision. The point is what Lawrence ceaselessly searches for is not a concrete place and the ideal world actually lies in the reconciliation of the opposed two in dualism.