Intertextual functions of portrait descriptions in D.H Lawrence’s Women in love
Keywords:
Intertextuality, portrait description, characterizationAbstract
Modernist portraiture seldom seeks a consistent visual representation of character. Instead, it turns description into a place where old texts, genres, and cultural discourses are brought to life and fought over. This article analyzes the intertextual functions of portrait descriptions in D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love by invoking and reinterpreting realist norms of physiognomic legibility, integrating painterly and aesthetic lexicons that transform individuals into images, and utilizing symbolic and ideological frameworks that interpret bodies as cultural signifiers. Through an intertextual and narratological framework, the study posits that Lawrence’s portraits function as interpretive pivots linking individual bodies to established representational frameworks, while concurrently revealing the ethical and epistemic vulnerabilities inherent in those frameworks. The analysis demonstrates that the portrayal of portraits in the novel is not merely decorative but rather programmatic; it serves as a vehicle for modernist critique, presenting identity as contingent, relational, and impervious to conclusive representation.
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