Queering love and desire : sex, sexuality, and shame in The rainbow and Women in love

Abstract

This dissertation aims to undertake a contemporary and queer focused reading of D.H. Lawrence’s novels The Rainbow and Women in Love. It will analyse the novels both individually and then in comparison, while tracing a composition of queering acts and attitudes throughout, which combine to ultimately embrace sexual fluidity and freedom. The concept of queering will be discussed first and exemplified through a short consideration of gender dynamics. Then, changes in attitude towards desire will be noted, seen as occurring through a generational progression with regards to sexual enjoyment, or jouissance, and to power dynamics. The third chapter will illustrate how homosexuality itself emanates a queering attitude and performs queering acts. Lastly, the concept of shameless queerness will be proposed and explored, in light of a Modern context where shame and sex are inextricably related notions. This work will show how a text which was progressive during its time can still transcend its period and deliver perennially relevant interpretations. A contemporary eye can extract invaluable meaning from these texts and relate it to current discourse around sex, sexuality, and queerness.