18.97.14.89
18.97.14.89
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World under the Thriving Water: On the Language of Gudrun and Birkin in Women in Love
( Tae Yun Lim )
UCI I410-ECN-0102-2012-840-001687946

In this paper, I focus my exploration on examining the centralfunction of narrative language of the two figures, Gudrun and Birkin, to better understand D. H. Lawrence`s idea of language and novel-writing in Women in Love. I think that the two opposing cultural impulses of Lawrence in modern era-the desires to grasp the "the Fullness of Being" in language and the frustration resulting from its failure-are equally mingled through the characterization of Gudrun and Birkin. While some critics have attempted to reduce these two characters` language to matters of "form" and "life" while attributing the author`s artistic dilemma exclusively to Birkin, I address the manner in which opposing impulses of linguistic desire and their frustration are equally distributed in the language of the two characters, not solely in one. Although Birkin tries to free himself from old forms and sentiments like Gudrun, these two figures differ in the methods which they adopt as cure and escapement from the rotten civilization. Gudrun`s language suggests more of an inward lucidity and transparency one associates with creative thought and metaphor. Her modern usage of language incorporates notions of completion and `finishdness` of organic language, while mythic, totemic symbols and vivid illustration of colors serve as tropes for moments of violence. On the other hand, in Birkin`s narrative, one can more find repeated, redundant use of language that draw attention to "the materiality and opacity of words." His words also bring to mind Derrida`s notion of de-compositional language, according to which spoken or written signs are never simply present nor absent but traces of traces. Here lies my claim that Lawrence`s works should be defined neither as a finished form nor an entity but as a continual stream of language woven in present progressive form.

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