A jungle of depression : An explication of d. H. Lawrence’s last poems in the light of julia kristeva’s depressive discourse

Abstract EN

D.H.

Lawrence‟s Last Poems, written in the last six months of his life and published posthumously, shows the crisis of depression in a dying man and describes Lawrence's change in mood in the approaching end of his life.

Julia Kristeva theorizes in Black Sun that depressed persons have difficulty to communicate through ordinary symbolic means of language.

In order to communicate, they must find new linguistic means to overcome sadness.

Kristeva names this attempt to overcome sadness through poetic language as “depressive discourse”.

Writing and art, and specifically poetry, can be depressive discourse, thereby allowing a certain level of recovery to occur.

Once an individual can write about his/ her sadness, the sufferer may experience a reprieve from depression.

Lawrence‟s particular use of rhythm, tone and imagery can be identified as an attempt to overcome this crisis through writing.

The poems exhibit specific formal features such as irregular metre, sonorous sound and hypnotically repeated words and phrases, as well as images of darkness, falling, dying, oblivion and heaven and hell that, coupled with the knowledge of his personal state can be interpreted as features of depressive discourse.

This paper, then, is an investigation of depression in D.H.

Lawrence‟s Last Poems in terms of kristeva‟s theory of depressive discourse, showing that Lawrence was attempting to overcome his depression through poetry, as well as attempting to prove, contrary to the current portrait, especially in Iraq, that Lawrence is indeed thinking in terms of God and religion.