SOURCE: Siegel, Carol. “St. Mawr: Lawrence's Journey Toward Cultural Feminism.” D. H. Lawrence Review 26, nos. 1-3 (1997): 275-86.

In the following essay, Siegel analyzes Lawrence's relationship to feminism and contends that “St. Mawr” reveals some commonality between Lawrence's beliefs and cultural feminism.

Although D. H. Lawrence has always had some strong supporters among academic feminists and, in the last few years, has gained in this area, the predominant opinion among feminist literary critics is that his writing exemplifies misogynist discourse. The critics promoting this view of Lawrence often concede that some sympathy with the feminist movement of his time is apparent in his work up through The Rainbow, but after that they see what has been called a “turn against women” and, more specifically, a turn against feminism.¹ That Lawrence was interested in feminism early in his career and familiar with the work of important early feminist theorists, such...