Dawid de Villiers
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
The Metaphysics of Return: Lawrence's Struggle with the Problematic of Home vs Frontier
In this paper I aim to trace the impact of Lawrence's return to England—in 1923 and again in 1926—on what I have elsewhere characterised as his "frontier metaphysic" (as shaped by his revitalising, if typically fraught, experiences in the United States and Mexico). In particular I will consider how we are to read Lawrence's notable use of the terms, "home" and "heart," in relation to this metaphysic and the assumptions regarding the destiny of European civilisation that underpin it. While the discursive writings from the period—from "On Coming Home" to the much later "Return to Bestwood"—reiterate his critique of England, there are also signs (notably, Lady Chatterley's Lover) of a renewed interest in the world he grew up in. In short, while I intend to establish the significance of the trope of the "frontier" in Lawrence's metaphysic at the time, I will specifically consider the ways in which the actuality of the English landscape and people on some level poses a challenge to the terms of this metaphysic as it developed abroad, and serves to qualify or problematise the idea of an ineluctable destiny of Western decline.