《恋爱中的女人》与劳伦斯的“小说三要素”

D. H. Lawrence’s theorization of "the three elements of the novel" constitutes an essential part of his literary criticism. This essay offers an investigation into "the three elements" as they are represented in one of Lawrence’s early masterpieces, Women in Love(1920). The novel, according to Lawrence, must be "quick", "interrelated in all its parts, vitally, organically" and "honorable". In Women in Love, Lawrence portrays lively and dynamic characters who would let themselves be guided by nothing but the flame of life; he captures some rare and almost supernatural moments when his characters merge with their environment; and he points, for a novel to become honourable, to the need for courage in the writer to face up to man’s instinct and determination to stay clear from all grey-coloured philosophizing. Lawrence’s theory reflects a rather traditional humanistic interest in the ethics as much as in the aesthetics of the novel as a literary form. His later novels confirmed this interest and this humanist position.