He-Goat, a Satyr Chasing She-Goat or a Tyrant Challenging a Male? A Comparative Reading of "He-Goat" by D. H. Lawrence

DOI

10.2991/iccese-17.2017.71How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Lawrence; "He-Goat"; "The Ass"; "The Tortoises"; Old Adam; transformation; homoeroticism

Abstract

"He-Goat", another tangling poem by D. H. Lawrence, challenges its readers by its complexity in theme. This poem, very much like "The Ass" and "The Tortoises", explores into the correlation between the religious or creative motive and sexual motive behind the behavior of a he-goat-an incarnation of the modern human beings. However, instead of a reconciliation of the two motives to each other, a reciprocal transformation from the two discussed by the poet in Fantasia of the Unconscious is further elaborated in this poem. Moreover, a third kind of motive is indicated and explored in "He-Goat". That is the displaced homoeroticism in the way of same-sex combating, or in the way of a sublimation of heterosexuality into homosexuality. In the light of those, readers may gain a closer understanding of this poem to what it was in the poet's own mind.

Copyright

© 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yongxue Li
AU  - Zengyin Li
PY  - 2017/05
DA  - 2017/05
TI  - He-Goat, a Satyr Chasing She-Goat or a Tyrant Challenging a Male? A Comparative Reading of "He-Goat" by D. H. Lawrence
BT  - Proceedings of the 2017 International Conference on Culture, Education and Financial Development of Modern Society (ICCESE 2017)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 276
EP  - 281
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/iccese-17.2017.71
DO  - 10.2991/iccese-17.2017.71
ID  - Li2017/05
ER  -