Sexual politics and modernity in the poetry of D. H. Lawrence and Philip Larkin

First chapter of this study covers the emergence of modernity and its development through history. In order to explore the relationship between modernity and literature, it is necessary to go back the Renaissance, to understand the social consequences of the Age of Enlightenment, the following industrial revolution, and lastly great changes and the disillusionment experienced in the twentieth century as a result of the two great wars. In the second chapter, the idea of sexual politics is examined. The dynamics of the concept and the effects of modernity on these dynamics are explained by investigating the main social, political, scientific, and economic changes through the time period covered in the first chapter. As the analysis section of this research focuses on two twentieth century poets' works, twentieth century modernity is examined closer and the effects of the social and political changes on sexual politics in this century are analysed. The third chapter of this study explores D. H. Lawrence's poetry and his attitude towards sexuality and women. Some of his poems from different poetry collections are analysed in terms of sexual politics and its relation to modernity. In the last chapter, Philip Larkin's poetry is investigated with a focus on the sexual politics and modernity and specific poems are analysed in detail. While analysing these poems, sexual revolution of the second half of the twentieth century and the motivation behind it are emphasised. This study aims to explore the position of women in sexual politics in relation to modernity, attempts to analyse the dynamics of this positioning, and questions whether sexual liberation gives freedom to women in equal basis with men. Keeping this aim in mind, selected poems by two great poets, D. H. Lawrence, who wrote in the first half of the twentieth century, and Philip Larkin, who wrote in the second half of the twentieth century, are examined and discussed.