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Zoller
to talk about ruckus-raising D.H. Lawrence works
By
Amy Geiszler-Jones
While
his books and paintings would be considered "tame" by
today’s standards, English novelist and artist D.H. Lawrence
created quite a controversy during his creative career in the early
1900s.
Peter
Zoller, WSU’s associate vice president of academic affairs
and research, will talk about "The Banned Art of D.H. Lawrence:
Paintings and Novels That Raised a Ruckus," during a free slide
lecture at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. The lecture, in 107 Devlin Hall,
is part of the School of Art and Design’s Art and Architecture
Series.
Zoller’s
academic expertise is in modern British literature, and he’s
taught specialized classes on Lawrence’s works and has directed
a number of master’s theses about Lawrence.
Zoller
will talk about why Lawrence’s works were banned as obscene
or pornographic and what Lawrence’s intentions were.
Perhaps
the best known of Lawrence’s banned works is "Lady Chatterley’s
Lover," which was the author’s last novel before his death
at age 44 in 1930. The novel, published in 1928, used taboo language
at the time in describing the affair between Lady Constance Chatterley
and Oliver Mellors. The novel wasn’t printed in uncensored
form until the late 1950s. Zoller, for example, purchased an expurgated
copy of the novel as late as 1966.
But
Lawrence was drawing the ire of censors and critics long before
"Lady Chatterley’s Lover." His 1915 novel, "The
Rainbow," was also banned for a time, Zoller says. And some
of his paintings were deemed obscene, as well.
"The
paintings are a nice way to get out Lawrence’s problems with
censorship," Zoller says. "He painted to relax, and also
in my opinion, to illustrate some of his ideas about human behavior,
mores and customs."
According
to a July 4, 1929 New York Times article on the seizing of 12 Lawrence
paintings from a London exhibition, one critic said the works "compel
most spectators to recoil in horror."
That
probably won’t be the reaction of those at the Feb. 9 lecture,
when Zoller shares slides of Lawrence’s paintings.
"People
will be astounded to see how innocent they are" by today’s
standards, Zoller says.
The
son of a coal miner in Nottinghamshire, Lawrence often drew criticism
for his literary works because he based his novels’ characters
and settings on places and people he knew.
Lawrence
was willing to take more risks in his creative works than his contemporaries,
Zoller says, and he violated certain social norms in doing so, which
is why he attracted the censorship and banning.
"I
admire and have a great deal of respect for his commitment to change,"
says Zoller, "for trying to get people to see how their lives
could be more authentic."
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