The Duality of High and Low Culture in D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Lawrence, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928), reflects the post-war modern British society which condemns its individuals into a psychological trauma of ongoing conflicts between different classes and cultures. Advocating the exigency of a classless society, Lawrence shatters the hegemonic ideology of the highbrow culture which disdains working class culture as vulgar, coarse and commonplace. Reacting against the cultural displacement of working classes who are considered as masses, Lawrence indulges in revealing the authenticity and earnestness of the working class culture. Lawrence’s depiction of an uncorrupt ethical standing of the working class culture is the negation of the concept of culture, associated with high class manners and ways of life. The prevailing concern of this study, therefore, will be to analyze Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover from the perspective of cultural studies to unravel the clash of high and low cultures in relation to the hierarchical class structure of the post-war England.