D. H. Lawrence and James Joyce: Authorial Wanderings and the Great War

Abstract

This paper takes a comparative look at the experiences of D. H. Lawrence and James Joyce during the Great War with regard to their exiled and outsider positions, and the solitude they experienced and expressed in their letters written during the war. Their letters, therefore, are our primary corpus. We have shown that both writers cultivated similar modes of heroic solitude and isolation, assuming a posture recognised as a part of symbolist cultural and aesthetic habitus. Their stance is coupled with contempt for literary establishments and for popular opinion. The emphasis is, therefore, on the marginal, solitary condition of these two artists in a context of general catastrophe, from which they sought to distance themselves by adopting their particular versions of artistic “priesthood” and exclusive dedication. Our study of this correspondence is envisaged as a contribution to literary history and to the understanding of modernism as a moment of cultural, political, and human crisis augmented with the chaos brought about by the Great War.