D.H. Lawrence, science and the posthuman / Jeff Wallace.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wallace, Jeff, 1958-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930--Knowledge and learning--Science.

Lawrence, D. H.

Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1930.

Literature and science--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Literature and science.

Science in literature.

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xi, 264 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Summary:

What is the 'posthuman'? Does it represent a nightmare future in which human nature disappears, or a benign condition of kinship between humans, animals and machines? This book is the first reading of D. H. Lawrence's work from the perspectives of the contemporary posthuman. Going against the grain of traditional approaches to Lawrence, it argues that Lawrence's work reveals a complex, ambivalent relationship to scientific knowledge and to the idea of the machine. Links are forged between the materialist debates of Lawrence's time and the current posthumanist concerns of neuroscience and cybernetics. The book presents a detailed re-reading of Lawrence's fiction and philosophy in the light of contemporary thinkers such as J. M. Coetzee and Francis Fukuyama and of the new 'Bergsonism' of Deleuze and Guattari. Lawrence's writing shows us that our humanity can only be preserved by a searching examination of the taboos surrounding it, and by loosening the boundaries that separate us from the material world.

Contents:

Part I Science 9

1 Thinking Matter 11

1 Biological knowledge 11

2 D.H. Lawrence and science 16

3 Lawrence, science and humanist criticism 18

4 Posthumanism 26

2 Science, Ideology and the 'New' 34

1 'Born scientific' 34

2 Religious crisis and the New Theology 36

3 Science and socialism: The New Age 41

4 Science and gender: the New Woman 48

3 Writing Matter: Science, Language and Materialism 58

1 'Alert' and 'didactic' science 58

2 Darwin, origins and the arbitrary 66

3 Herbert Spencer: thinkability 72

4 Ernst Haeckel: the language of substance 80

5 T.H. Huxley: honeyed words 86

6 William James: reality in the making 92

Part II The Posthuman 99

4 Posthuman D.H. Lawrence? 101

5 Animals 119

1 Anthropomorphism and the meaning of animals: Coetzee and Lawrence 119

2 The White Peacock 123

3 Women in Love and St. Mawr 128

4 The Fox and Kangaroo: 'non-human human being' 141

5 Real encounters: porcupines and frogs 146

6 Humans 152

1 Eugenics past and present 152

2 The solar plexus 158

3 Cultures 166

4 Sensual riches: the posthuman in Sons and Lovers and The Rainbow 190

7 Machines 202

1 Luddite Lawrence 202

2 Mechanical and organic 207

3 Deleuze and Guattari's Lawrence 211

4 Aaron's Rod, Kangaroo, The Plumed Serpent: anti-capitalism and the posthumanistic 218

5 'To live beyond money': Lady Chatterley's Lover 227

Postscript: On Abstraction 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-258) and index.

ISBN:

1403942323

OCLC:

57236250

Publisher Number:

9781403942326 (hbk.)