Leslie Gautreaux Edwards
Texas A&M University, USA
Creating the Domestic: D. H. Lawrence and Modernist Masculinity
>D. H. Lawrence's effort to create his own domestic sphere through Rananim, his concept for a utopian community of writers and intellectuals, presents readers with evidence of his dedication to the supremacy of the dwelling place in intellectual thought and progress. In this paper I argue that more important than his unsuccessfulness in Rananim is the significance that Lawrence places on the home, domesticity, and community in his fiction, art work, and correspondence, which coincides with his own constant efforts to find and establish homes for himself and Frieda. In addition to analyzing the way in which Ottoline Morrell's home at Garsington served as a model of intellectual community and a temporary domicile for the Lawrences, I also wish to explore the way that Lawrence makes another push for Rananim at Cornwall, where he urges John Middleton Murry and Katherine Mansfield to take a home there on the coast. Specifically, I argue, Lawrence uses interior design plans and descriptions of decor in his attempt to entice them to move, while essentially becoming the group's interior designer. At the same time, he challenges critical characterizations of modernist masculine culture and literature as anti-domestic and urban-centered.