White Peacock Research Articles

Becoming, Rheology and Deterritorialization : on Sensibility Illustration in The White Peacock from the Affect Theory

The White Peacock by D.H. Lawrence in the Victorian era distinguishes itself with delieantion in affect, different from other works with bold strokes of sexual love. The factors and the change of identity in affective entanglements between Lettie, George and Leslie reflect the great emphasis of the emotion involved in love on the representation of the subject. The dynamics of affect is pivotal in delineating the interplay between the self and the other, the rhizomatic “becoming” subjectivity, and the rheology within the narrative. This paper explicates the exerted power of affect as the change of intensity of life, the becoming to new identities attributed to affect, and the deterritorializaton and rheology in Lettie’s subjectivity by drawing upon Gilles Deleuze’s critique of affect theory by Spinoza. The examination of Lettie’s marital and romantic choices under this perspective insinuates the vicissitudes of Victorian women's vitality amidst the complexities of love, the ideological nomadism of female subjects, and their emancipation from the entrenched frameworks of subjectivity. The inescapable outcome of their life trajectories and innate capacity for treating different affect movement. Although the affective power leads to the hybridity and contradiction of her action, her subjective consciousness and desire of self-confirmation against regulated, traditional love ethics are elucidated. This paper shed lights on the analytical lens from the empowerment of the affect on the subjectivity, that experiences of life energetic flow vary across diverse contexts, reflecting the multifaceted nature of subjectivity.

Love or Illusion of Love and Marriage Through D.H. Lawrence’s Fictions with Special Reference to Sons and Lovers and The White Peacock

Getting married is one the key dream of young men at the age of maturity. The aim is getting a trustworthy partner to live together in good and worse moments. But living together often allow you to discover some strange faces of your partner. This may either be bitter, illusive or regretful or the opposite. The purpose of this paper is the show how important love is in life is and the necessity for both men and women to be truthful. To reach our goal, we essentially went through documentary research and have used Marxist Criticism, literary criticism as literary theory. At the end of our study we come to the conclusion that loving is good but being sincere and truthful in love is the best. The most important is what each partner is doing to keep the flame of love in permanently lit the house.

‘Rotten Work of Genius’: Ford Madox Ford and D. H. Lawrence

When Ford Madox Ford read D. H. Lawrence’s first novel, The White Peacock, in manuscript, he shouted his criticism of it into Lawrence’s ear on a bus: ‘It’s got every fault that the English novel can have’, but he added: ‘you’ve got GENIUS’.1 He said something similarly paradoxical about Lawrence’s second novel, The Trespasser, describing it (again to the author) as a ‘rotten work of genius’.2 Lawrence’s work incited him to register its power, while making him feel it violated the very rules of novel-writing that mattered most to him. This critical impasse is instructive about both writers, and significant in the development of modernism. I propose to explore Ford’s paradoxical reading of Lawrence; to elaborate from it their contrasting aesthetic positions; and to consider the impact their important encounter had on their subsequent writing. It is registered in their fiction; but especially in their life writing – Lawrence in his letters mainly; Ford in his later reminiscences – life writing which simultaneously embodies criticism. It is there we need to look to gauge the significance of their meeting, their recognitions and misrecognitions. Lawrence wrestled with Ford’s critique for several years. Ford remained troubled by Lawrence for longer. He continued to read Lawrence’s fiction, and praised him as ‘a writer of genius’ in Sons and Lovers; but he criticised Women in Love in similar terms to The Trespasser, as compromised by sex-obsession.3 Ford uses his reaction to Lawrence as a person to clarify his accounts of his writing. But he also draws on the writing – particularly about animals and their natural habitat – to characterise the man. He recalled his first impression of Lawrence as fox-like – ‘the impression of the fox-coloured hair and moustache and the deep, wary, sardonic glance … as if he might be going to devour me’ – this before Lawrence had written ‘The Fox’, but doubtless sharpened by Ford’s subsequent reading of the story.4 And, as we shall see, he associated Lawrence with a disturbing, sexualised, ‘deep woodland’. It was typical of both Ford and Lawrence that their searching individualities produced vivid impressions on others. This was clearly going to be a signal clash of opposed literary personalities.

Fitcher’s Bird

Fitcher’s Bird Kate Bernheimer (bio) This was the difficult part. I was in a cave and the cave featured bears. The bears, or at least one bear, was assembling small bones to make little dolls, and the bears, or at least one bear, kept herself busy with a small trunk filled with doll costumes. I joined in with the bears. Painstakingly, I mended a pair of tiny overalls for one bear, not for a doll. The fit was unlikely to work for the bear, yet I was determined. I rethreaded the needle with a nice shade of pink. The scene resembled a story I had read more than a hundred times called “Fitcher’s Bird.” It was about a girl whose older sister was mutilated, as in cut into parts. The girl had tried faithfully yet unsuccessfully to rescue her sister before her violent death, and carried her sister’s bones in a rucksack. All over the world. Later the girl reassembled the bones, and the sister came back to life. The story had been retold in wax figures by an American artist. She then photographed the wax figures—that was the artwork, not the wax figures themselves. She was invited by a very glossy magazine to create this story for them, but when she submitted it to them it was rejected for being too dark. What did they expect from her? It is a story about mutilation! I used to show the American artist’s images as part of my performance. However, it turned out that I was horrified by these images. It took me some time to recognize this, but as soon as I recognized this, I removed them. I thought of this in the cave, as I sewed with the bears. And I thought of a place called The Gardens, where I once saw a ballet with a dancing bear in it. I had been invited to perform there that night, and I spent the day in the city with a friend who dragged me all over the place. She had heard of a botanical garden that she said we could easily walk to. Well! It turned out to be two hours away, and besides, it had fallen into great disrepair. All the buildings had broken windows, most of the plants were dead, and the statue of Diana at its entrance deeply disturbed me. I smiled at my friend, of course, throughout our arduous journey, because she was eager to please me. She had joined me for this leg of the tour upon my request. She got lost on our way back to the hotel. It took us four hours to get there. I still made it to The Gardens in time for my performance. Before I was to be on stage, that was when the ballet took place. Dancing bear, [End Page 20] soldier, woman in gown, little boy (an irritant, of course—why must they cast children?) . . . tinkly music . . . white peacock. As the ballet dragged on, I thought about a lot of things, such as, “Are bears prehistoric? When were there bears? Were there bears thousands of years ago, at the time of cave painting? What is the sequence tonight—do I begin with the white dress and lullaby, then move into the swan’s theme, and then, when the neon begins, I do artistic ballet?” Would ballet after ballet be tiresome for the viewers, I wondered. No, it would not. And I rehearsed, in my head, the banter I had been given: “How was your supper tonight? Squash blossoms and pansies? Delectable! You, in the tuxedo with the red lipstick. You look beautiful, babe!” The banter was all wrong, I slowly realized. As the sun slunk down, a melancholy shadow cast over the lawn, which glistened with rain. The banter was entirely too jaunty for this remarkable setting. Too sensible. What I sought was more meaningful. I quickly found the right tone. “Have you seen the chestnut flowers by the Ferris wheel? You must, if you haven’t. Existential. You in the tuxedo, with the red lipstick, you remind me of a Russian bell. Dissonant. Spellbinding. Would you like to be my...

Energy F/flows through the Environment in The White Peacock

This paper argues the case for a new reading of D.H. Lawrence’s The White Peacock (1911) against the popular interest in the New Physics theories developed at the turn of the twentieth century. Such a reading focuses on energy as an elemental cosmogenic force in the environment and illustrates a new understanding of material relationships. These relationships speak of Lawrence’s affinity with modernist and post-humanist concerns, mainly in terms of the permeability and indeterminacy of states. Using his first novel as a case study, this paper exposes the various sources and forms of energy that are inscribed in the narrative, and which literally energise the relationship between the organic and nonorganic. This post-humanist perspective illuminates Lawrence’s ability to layer meaning and to transgress the cause and effect narrative of conventional evolution to one of eternal becomings of the post-humanist world. Instead of merely focusing on the elegiac idealisation of landscape, Lawrence unveils the turbulence of life at molecular and microbial level. This microscopic perspective decentres the human as the sole harbinger of meaning.

Mitochondrial DNA barcodes provide insight into the phylogeography and subspecies controversy in the widespread Neotropical white peacock butterfly,Anartia jatrophae(Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae)

AbstractThe validity of subspecies designations in the common and wide-ranging Neotropical white peacock butterfly, Anartia jatrophae, has been debated for decades and remains an unsettled and contentious taxonomic issue among lepidopterists. Originally described by Linnaeus in the mid-18th century from specimens obtained from northern South America (Suriname), subsequent authors proposed a variety of subspecies names based on differences in adult external morphology among geographical populations. Many of these differences, however, were subsequently found to occur seasonally within populations, leading some to conclude that only a single polymorphic species should be recognized. Here, we have analysed both new and publicly available mitochondrial DNA barcodes, obtained from specimens collected from southern USA to northern Argentina, to assess whether they could provide insight into this long-standing controversy. Our molecular analyses, using a combination of character-based (nucleotide composition), population genetic and phylogenetic approaches, indicated the presence of at least four distinct genetic lineages that we suggest are distinct at the subspecies level, namely A. j. jatrophae, A. j. luteipicta, A. j. saturata and A. j. semifusca. Justification for these assignments and the proposed geographical distribution of each subspecies within the Americas are discussed.

Phylogenetic analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome of the white peacock butterfly Anartia jatrophae saturata (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

The white peacock butterfly Anartia jatrophae saturata Staudinger, 1884 (Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae: Victorini), lives in the neotropics. Genome skimming with Illumina sequencing of A. jatrophae saturata allowed the assembly of a complete circular mitogenome of 15,297 bp, consisting of 81.4% AT nucleotides, 22 tRNAs, 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNAs, and a control region. Anartia jatrophae COX1 features an atypical start codon (CGA); ATP6, COX1, ND1, ND4, ND4L, ND5, and ND6 exhibit incomplete stop codons completed in the mRNA by the addition of 3′ A residues. Contrary to previous phylogenetic hypotheses, phylogenetic reconstruction places A. jatrophae as sister to nymphalid tribe Nymphalini.

Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love

D. H. Lawrence began to read Schopenhauer and Nietzsche while a student at Nottingham University College. The influence of the two philosophers on his early short stories and his novels from The White Peacock (1911) through to The Rainbow (1915) has been considered at length in books and essays on Lawrence. There has been little discussion to date, though, of the presence of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in Women in Love (1920). The unmistakably Nietzschean term Wille zur Macht (will to power) appears in the novel and has attracted some critical comment, but there is no equally obvious reference to Schopenhauer, and discussion of Schopenhauer’s influence has been accordingly slight. Lawrence believed, however, that every novel should have a ‘background metaphysic’, and careful examination of Women in Love reveals that its metaphysic, or ‘theory of being’, derives from a combination of Schopenhauer’s and Nietzsche’s philosophical theories.

Growth, Quality Index, and Mineral Composition of Five Ornamental Cabbage Cultivars Grown Under Different Nitrogen Fertilization Rates

The fertilizer nitrogen (N) inputs to some potted plants such as ornamental cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala D.C.) are frequently higher than the actual demand. Optimization of N fertilization rate and selecting N-efficient cultivars are important approaches to increase the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and to reduce environmental pollution from nitrate leaching. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of increasing levels of nitrate (0.5, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 mm of NO3−) in the nutrient solution on plant growth, quality, soil plant analysis development (SPAD) index, chlorophyll fluorescence, leaf pigments, mineral composition, and NUE in five ornamental cabbage cultivars (Coral Prince, Coral Queen, Glamour Red, Northern Lights Red, and White Peacock), grown in closed subirrigation system. ‘Glamour Red’ and ‘Northern Lights Red’ needed 3.3 and 2.9 mm of NO3− in the supplied nutrient solution, respectively, to produce 50% of predicted maximum shoot dry weight (SDW), whereas the vigorous cultivars Coral Prince, Coral Queen, and White Peacock needed 5.5, 4.7, and 4.3 mm of NO3−, respectively. Total leaf area (LA), SDW, SPAD index, N, Ca, and Mg concentrations increased linearly and quadratically in response to an increase of the nitrate concentration in the nutrient solution. Irrespective of cultivars, fertilizing above 10 mm NO3− produced high-quality plants (quality index of 5) and resulted in sufficiently high tissue concentrations of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Fe.

Dietary specialization and the effects of plant species on potential multitrophic interactions of three species of nymphaline caterpillars

AbstractThe diet breadth of insect herbivores influences their response to variation in plant quality, and these bitrophic interactions have implications for the higher‐level trophic interactions between herbivores and their natural enemies. In this comparative study, we examined the role of host plant species and plant secondary chemistry on the potential interactions between three species of nymphaline caterpillars and their natural enemies. The caterpillar species (all Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) varied in their degree of specialization: the buckeye, Junonia coenia Hübner, is a specialist on plants that contain iridoid glycosides (IGs); the white peacock, Anartia jatrophae L., feeds on plants in five families, some of which contain IGs and some of which do not; and the painted lady, Vanessa cardui L., is a generalist, feeding on plants in at least 15 families. Each species was reared on leaves of an introduced host plant, Plantago lanceolata L. (Plantaginaceae), which produces two IGs, aucubin and catalpol, and on another plant species that is a common host plant. These alternate host plants were Plantago major L. (Plantaginaceae) for J. coenia, Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell (Plantaginaceae) for A. jatrophae, and Malva parviflora L. (Malvaceae) for V. cardui. We examined growth, sequestration, and immune response of these caterpillars on the different host plant species. Junonia coenia developed more rapidly and sequestered higher IG concentrations when reared on P. lanceolata, whereas both other species grew more slowly on P. lanceolata. Host plant did not influence immune response of J. coenia or A. jatrophae, whereas V. cardui immune response was weaker when reared on P. lanceolata. Junonia coenia was most efficient at IG sequestration and A. jatrophae was least efficient, when all three species were reared on P. lanceolata. These results indicate that diet breadth may play an important role in structuring tritrophic interactions, and this role should be further explored.

Language and Communication in The White Peacock

It seems that The White Peacock has been much condescended to by critics. Even Lawrence declared: “I was very young when I wrote The Peacock. I began it at twenty. Let that be my apology.” Generally the heroes are twenty, not the novelists who create them. He happened to reread the novel in 1925 for the first time in fifteen years and he wrote: “It seemed strange and far off and as if written by somebody else. I wonder how I could have thought of some of the things or how I could have written...

Incorporation of an Introduced Weed into the Diet of a Native Butterfly: Consequences for Preference, Performance and Chemical Defense

The introduction of exotic plants, animals, and pathogens into non-native ecosystems can have profound effects on native organisms. Plantago lanceolata, narrow-leaf or ribwort plantain (Plantaginaceae), is a weed that was introduced to North America from Eurasia approximately 200 years ago and that has been incorporated into the diet of a variety of native North American herbivores. Plantain contains two iridoid glycosides, aucubin and catalpol, that can be toxic or deterrent to non-specialized herbivores or herbivores that have recently incorporated this species into their diet. Anartia jatrophae (Nymphalidae), the white peacock, feeds on plants in five families including the Plantaginaceae, and was recently observed feeding on plantain; however, the effects of feeding on this novel host plant are unknown. In this study, we performed a series of experiments to assess larval preference and performance on the introduced P. lanceolata and on a native host plant that does not contain iridoid glycosides, water hyssop, Bacopa monnieri (Plantaginaceae). We also tested whether or not white peacocks were able to sequester iridoid glycosides and compared this ability with an iridoid specialist, the buckeye, Junonia coenia (Nymphalidae). White peacocks successfully developed to the adult stage on plantain; larvae grew more slowly but pupae were heavier when compared with larvae and pupae reared on the native host plant. Larvae showed induced feeding preferences for the host plant on which they were reared. Furthermore, larvae sequestered small amounts of iridoids that were also retained in pupae and adults. These results suggest that incorporation of the introduced weed, plantain, into the diet of the white peacock may have important consequences for larval performance and preference, as well as for interactions with natural enemies.

(R)evolutionary Fears and Hopes in The White Peacock

A letter written in June 1910 indicates that Lawrence had briefly considered entitling his first novel “Tendrils.” Of course every reader can choose to read this in his or her own way. Perhaps the most productive way to read it is as a two-faced symbol. On the one hand, referring as it does to the tendrils that “George is always putting forth […] for things that are out of reach” (L i. 167), it endows George Saxton with the instinctive persistency and the essential will-to-live of nature, for...

The Study Circle of D. H. Lawrence (ed.), D. H. Lawrence Studies: ‘White Peacock’

The Study Circle of D. H. Lawrence (ed.), D. H. Lawrence Studies: ‘White Peacock’

The White Peacock and Homosexuality

The White Peacock and Homosexuality

Apples Planted in The White Peacock

Apples Planted in The White Peacock

The Shared Cruelty -Wuthering Heights and The White Peacock -

The Shared Cruelty -Wuthering Heights and The White Peacock -

D. H. Lawrence: Desire and Narrative

This exploration of D. H. Lawrence's longer fiction marks a long overdue effort to bring the writing of a 20th-century British into a postmodern context. Earl Ingersoll's approach moves beyond the traditional binary of psychoanalysis and literature in which a single theoretical approach like psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's is applied to the fiction of a writer like Lawrence. Ingersoll instead turns to theorists who have been influenced by Lacan - Peter Brooks, Jane Gallop, and Barbara Johnson, among others - to construct a framework for the reading of desire in these narratives by Lawrence. Individual chapters focus on four Lawrence novels - Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover - along with commentary on Lawrence's first novel. The White Peacock. Unlike earlier discussions of these novels as narratives about desire, Ingersoll's work examines how desire energizes the texts as narratives - whether it is the desire of narrative for its ending in The Rainbow or the implication of the reader in gazing at the male body in Lady Chatterley's Lover. Then, in a postmodern turn of its own, the book includes a chapter on Lawrence's problematic posthumous novel, Mr Noon, forcing readers to reconsider what terms like major novel and author mean. Because biographical criticism has dominated writing on Lawrence, some readers may be surprised by Ingersoll's study since it virtually ignores the author.

Oesophageal foreign body in a Peafowl and its successful extraction

The bird was caught and physically restrained. Close manipulation of the neck revealed a pointed swelling over the midventral area which appeared to be painful. Hence the case was suspected to be some foreign body obstruction and surgical intervention was essential. The feathers of surrounding area were clipped and the part was painted with Tincture iodine and lignocaine (Xylocaine; Astra-IDL) 2% as suggested by Singh (1996) was applied at the site and a linear incision was made on the swelling. The subcutaneous area was found to be inflamed with exudation. The retraction of trachea laterally revealed a sharp L-shaped nail of about 1.5cm, which had pierced from the oesophagus and the head of the nail was found in the oesophageal lumen. The nail was dislodged from the oesophagus by slight tilting and was taken out. The oesophageal opening was closed with two simple interrupted sutures using 3.0 catgut and the surrounding subcutaneous tissue was wiped with an antiseptic solution. Antibiotic Cephalexin powder (Lixen powder; Glaxo-Agrivet Farmcare) was sprinkled over the site and the skin incision was closed with two simple interrupted sutures keeping a gap at the ventral side for possible drainage. Cephalexin powder @ 100 mg/day was also given with drinking water for the next five days. The peafowl was given only a liquid diet of soaked and ground jowar for 10 days instead of the usual grains and vegetables to avoid possibility of choking. The bird showed uneventful recovery and the skin sutures were allowed to remain in situ. Although few surgical conditions in zoo birds have been reported by various authors (Rao & Acharjyo, 1990, 1995; Naik, 1990, Swaminanthan & Thiruthalinathan, 1996), most of the cases were diagnosed on necropsy examinations. In general, the avian species are poor in responding to surgery due to their physiological and psychological sensitivity. Rao and Acharjyo (1990) reported death in common goose due to impaction of proventriculus and gizzard, and they also reported deaths due to obstructive vegetable sticks and thorn in Green Pigeon, Adjutant Stork and White Peacock. Further, rusted wire and dry sand impaction in the gizzard of White Ibis, Common Pigeon, Peahen and in a domestic goose were encountered on necropsy. In the present case, close examination and symptoms like painful cackle, extended neck, long attempts at swallowing helped in diagnosing the foreign body and local manipulation revealed the foreign body in the ventral neck area. The peafowl might have accidentally swollowed the nail, which emphasizes proper attention be taken while cleaning the enclosures. Proper care should be taken to remove all construction and other hardware after enclosure repairs. Similarly hard vegetable sticks and thorns should not be offered to birds.

The vital art of D.H. Lawrence: vision and expression

D.H. Lawrence, asserts Jack Stewart, expresses a painter's vision in words, supplementing visual images with verbal rhythms. With the help of 23 illustrations, Stewart examines Lawrence's painterly vision in The White Peacock, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, Kangaroo and The Plumed Serpent. He concludes by synthesizing the themes that pervade this inter-arts study: vision and expression, art and ontology.