Promptings of Desire: Creativity and the Religious Impulse in the Works of D. H. Lawrence (Contributions to the Study of World Literature)

'œDemonstrating prodigious knowledge not only of Lawrence's works, but also of those of his critics and of various relevant theoreticians, Poplawski does not claim to be either comprehensive or original. Rather, he wishes to explore, for the first time in depth, a commonly acknowledged major theme in Lawrence-creativity, arguing that it is "a central structuring principle of his aesthetic, ethical, and metaphysical thought." Throughout, Poplawski focuses on ideas, using various Lawrence works to illustrate them. After examining the history of various meanings of creativity (Chapter 1) and relating them to Lawrence's notions the "creative unconscious" (Chapter 2), he provides an overview of the novels, pointing to limitations in the first three novels, arguing that in The Rainbow and Women in Love Lawrence provides the greatest scope and detail in his treatment of creativity, and asserting that the remaining novels focus much more narrowly on individual aspects of it. Most of the remaining chapters examine this position. First, however, Poplawski demonstrates the inseparability of Lawrence's concept of creativity and his religious views, and in a later chapter he explores, in some depth, numerous contradictions in Lawrence's thinking. This is a valubale study-knowledgeable. thoughtful, licid and balanced. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty.'' ChoicePoplawski, Paul is the author of 'Promptings of Desire: Creativity and the Religious Impulse in the Works of D. H. Lawrence (Contributions to the Study of World Literature)', published 1993 under ISBN 9780313287893 and ISBN 0313287899.