Language as a Means of Distinction and Exclusion: Distinction through Language in Lady Chatterley's Lover

Abstract

This thesis researches the language philosophy in Carry van Bruggen's philosophical work Hedendaagsch Fetischisme (1925). To show what the consequences of her philosophy are, I use her theory to analyse the relationship between several characters from different social classes in D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. I explain the different levels on which language can be used as a means of distinction between people and groups of people. While explaining van Bruggen's theory, I relate to the distinction between the Dutch in the early twentieth century, while the analysis of the novel relates to class distinction in early twentieth-century England. Distinction through language does not only take place because differences can be observed in the use of language, but also because different intrinsic values are incidentally and arbitrarily attributed to different kinds of language. On this incidental basis, language is judged as superior or inferior. This thesis focuses mainly on distinction on the basis of accent, dialect and national language(s). In the analysis of the novel, the different kinds of language that are present, and the way these differences in language are used as a means of distinction, are examined. This shows how these distinctions in and through language are used to preserve power relations between individuals and the social classes to which they belong. The analysis offers a new way to read the novel, for the philosophy of van Bruggen has not yet been translated in English, and therefore offers new insights about the language use in the novel.