Revisiting the Pansies Notebook: New Approaches to D. H. Lawrence's Late Archives

Abstract

D. H. Lawrence completed several significant works concurrently during the last three years of his life (1928–1930), including the poetry collection Pansies. Though the three volumes of Poems of the comprehensive Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence offer valuable insight into Lawrence's verse-writing, this article underscores the importance of critically examining the materiality and intertextuality of Lawrence's late works by returning to the archives. It proposes two innovative approaches: reconstructing the Pansies notebook by situating dispersed archival materials back into the notebook, and analysing the intertextuality of seemingly unrelated pieces across various genres. This study complements the existing scholarly edition by providing a fresh perspective for examining Lawrence's late archives and appreciating his works synoptically and compositionally. It emphasises the significance of archives in the study of D. H. Lawrence and the broader field of modernist studies.