Abstract

D.H. Lawrence's major novels project a vision of human sexuality which is entirely nihilistic in its ultimate expression. Lawrence's sexual philosophy, in fact, derives from the author's profound knowledge of the work of the major comparative mythologists and cultural anthropologists of the nineteenth century, whose research both provoked and intensified Lawrence's own mythopoeic interpretation of human existence. Barbara Miliaras analyzes Lawrence's early novels as they reflect the major comparative mythological, cultural anthropoligical and psychosexual theories of their day, thereby providing a key to understanding the forces that shaped Lawrence's own psychosexual development and the formulation of his sexual philosophy.