D.H. Lawrence Lecture

The UNM Alumni Association in partnership with the D.H. Lawrence Ranch Initiatives and the Department of English Language and Literature proudly present the annual D.H. Lawrence Lecture. This lecture series celebrates D.H. Lawrence, British novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, translator, literary critic and painter, whose genius was not truly recognized until after his death. In an obituary, E.M. Forster named him, “The greatest imaginative novelist of our generation.” Lawrence’s dialog with nature, humanity and the human condition is revealed to us in the inimitable way in which he accesses language to delve deep into the human soul while preserving the mystery that is man/woman/nature.

2019

Marianna Torgovnick

A Guggenheim Fellow and a Fulbright lecturer, Dr. Marianna Torgovnick has taught at Duke University for most of her career and serves as Professor of English and Director of Duke in New York Arts and Media. She won an American Book Award for her memoir, Crossing Ocean Parkway, about growing up Italian American in Brooklyn and is also well known for her work on primitivism in two books, Gone Primitive and Primitive Passions, as well as on World War Two in cultural memory in The War Complex. Her current project explores apocalypse in contemporary culture, including non-fiction, cli-fi, and film. It continues her interest in beginnings and endings—this one perhaps the biggest and the last.

This lecture consists of two presentations:

April 2, 2019
UNM Continuing Education Auditorium - Albuquerque, NM

Friends and Lovers: Owning D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence was scarcely in his grave before friends and lovers began fighting over his reputation and many critics, including me, work on D.H.L. for years. The lecture takes a playful look at Lawrence’s life and thought, with possessiveness as its theme and includes some short readings from Torgovnick’s novel (written under another name), about D.H. and Frieda Lawrence.

April 4, 2019
Harwood Museum - Taos, NM

My D.H.L: When Creativity Gets Contagious

Many critics, including me, work on D.H.L. for years—in my case, truth be told, with considerable reluctance. Why can’t I get away from D.H. Lawrence and where has it led? I’ll explore three directions. First, Lawrence’s role in my current work on popular culture and climate change. Second, a novel about D.H. and Frieda Lawrence written under another name. And, finally, a novel still being revised about Georgia O’Keeffe, who befriended Frieda Lawrence in Taos and whose husband, Alfred Stieglitz, admired both the Lawrences profoundly.

Past Events