LINGUISTIC MECHANISMS OF PORTRAIT DESCRIPTION IN MODERNIST FICTION: A CASE STUDY OF D.H. LAWRENCE’S WOMEN IN LOVE
Keywords:
portrait description; characterization; modernism; stylistics; focalization; metaphor; metonymy; D. H. Lawrence; Women in Love.Abstract
Modernist fiction transforms portrait description from a fixed catalog of physical
attributes into a dynamic, interpretive practice influenced by perception, emotion, and social power. This article analyzes the linguistic mechanisms employed in D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love to create character portraits as dynamic events occurring through encounters, rather than as static descriptive elements. The study employs stylistic and narratological analysis to examine three interconnected mechanisms: the distribution of portraiture across varying focalizations; the lexicogrammatical dynamism that integrates description with action, stance, and temporality; and the figurative transpositions that correlate bodily detail with material, sensory, and ideological domains. The results indicate that Lawrence's portraits function as diagnostic tools that both encourage and complicate bodily "reading," thus correlating portrait description with the modernist critique of clear knowledge and fixed identity.
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