The Hidden D. H. Lawrence is a new study of the psychological and literary aspects of a great writers lyrical genius. It explores how Lawrence, when writing on his favorite subject, the relations between men and women, moved so quickly between heavy-handed exposition and deeply inspired prose, depending on the gender of the object of his attention. Nowhere is this clearer than in the three grand love scenes from Lady Chatterleys Lover, those cut from the first American edition of 1932. In these scenes, Mellors, Lawrences usual alter ego, suddenly and almost magically becomes the object of attention, although now seen through the eyes of his female protagonist. It may seem as if Lawrences purpose here is to probe a womans psyche, until one realizes that it is only such momentswhen his focus seems less on his female character than the erotic allure of a powerful manthat unlock Lawrences lyrical genius. The claim here is that in his major novels and stories, Lawrence was less interested in exploring the emotional lives of women than in using his female characters (as well as many sensitive male protagonists) to explore his own psychic life, one marked by the persistent attraction to the image of a strong malean inner life that for the last century has been hiding in plain sight.
Arvustused
"In this imaginative and rapturous reading of D.H. Lawrence, Myron Tuman tunes in to the writer's winter prose, or the interior fixation that drove his literary imagination, finding textual evidence of his complex erotic yearning to be the recipient of a virile male lover."
Rachel Cleves, author of Unspeakable, a biography of Norman Douglas
"Myron Tuman deftly ranges across Lawrences biography and oeuvre to uncover and explore the homoerotism that so often appears in disguise. Tuman not only surfaces Lawrences attraction to the male body, he also illuminates the connection of this underlying trope to the quality of Lawrences writings. The interpretation that, at its most lyrical, Lawrences prose involves male-male desire is persuasive and a welcome addition to the literature on homoeroticism in Lawrence."
Judith Ruderman, author of Race and Identity in D. H. Lawrence
"In The Hidden D. H. Lawrence, Myron Tuman sets out to demonstrate Lawrence's lifelong fascination with the image of a strong, silent male. He argues that this Jamesian "figure in the carpet" animates much of Lawrence's greatest writing. The Hidden D. H. Lawrence offers a fascinating new perspective on the full range of Lawrence's novels and stories."
Keith Cushman, recipient of the Harry T. Moore Award for Lifetime Contributions to D. H. Lawrence Studies
1. IntroductionA Writers Winter Thoughts
2. Lady Chatterleys Hidden
Lover
A Tender Lover or a Reluctant One?
The Two MellorsAs Subject and Object
A Tale of Two Bodies
The Two Mellors, Continued
On SodomyA Coda
3. AdolescenceAngst and Exuberance
The Great Friend of His Youth
But the Water Loves Me
Life Full of Glamour for Us Both
The Climax and Its Aftermath
Happy DaysA Coda
4. The Other Three Women
Clara DawesLawrences First Adult Relationship
Frieda WeekleyFirst Impressions
Frieda WeekleyThe Honeymoon
Rosalind BaynesLawrences Final Partner?
5. Greiffenhagens Shepherd
A Passionate Embrace
Demon LoversMen and Other Beasts
His Fearsome Father
Under the Colliery RailwayBeing Kissed by a Miner
6. Man-to-Man
Wrestling with DesireWomen in Love
Noli Me TangereCurtailed Desire in Three Stories
Two Gay Men in Lawrences LifeMaurice Magnus and Walt Whitman
The Limits of Friendship
7. Hiding in Plain SightFive Stories about Women
A Time in the Sun
The LadybirdA Dream of Coming Out
The FoxDesire and Its Aftermath
The PrincessThe Fear of Being Touched
The Woman Who Rode AwayNo Turning Back
8. His Fathers Body
Odour of Chrysanthemums
In Italy, Dreaming of Men
9. In AustraliaMan Alone
Myron Tuman, with a PhD in Victorian literature from Tulane University, taught at universities in West Virginia, Alabama, and Louisiana. Since 2006, he has published a series of literary studies of major writers and the psychic strains of family life: Melvilles Gay Father, on men and their sons; Don Juan and His Daughter, on women and their fathers; The Sensitive Son, on men and their mothers; and The Stuttering Son, on men and their fathers.
