Metaphor's Way of Knowing: The Poetry of D.H. Lawrence and the Church of Mechanism (American University Studies)

Product Description This timely book demonstrates the centrality of metaphor to Lawrence's radical sense of the constructed nature of all knowledge and his resulting belief in poetry as an alternative way of knowing. The book insightfully explains how Lawrence's most important volumes of poetry, Birds, Beasts and Flowers and Last Poems, shatter prevailing metaphors of «mechanism», Lawrence's shorthand for our reliance on the rational, the visual, and the empirical. It carefully explores the vibrant images of these poems and how they embed the poet's revolutionary views on knowledge. Despite his reputation, Lawrence's alternative system anticipates much contemporary feminist cultural criticism. Review «Patricia Hagen shrewdly analyzes Lawrence's much ignored poetry by showing how Lawrence's work anticipates the postmodernist trends contemporary literary critics are just now discovering. She presents her keen perceptions in clear, convincing prose - the kind of writing everyone can enjoy and learn from. This book is a 'must read' for any student of literary theory, discourse analysis, or British poetry.» (Lynn Diane Beene, University of New Mexico) About the Author The Author: Patricia Hagen received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. She is an assistant professor of English at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, and has also taught at Iowa State University, the University of Kansas, and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Her articles on D.H. Lawrence, John Fowles, and contemporary Irish women poets have appeared in a number of scholarly journals.