Kirsty Martin’s “Modernism and the Medicalization of Sunlight: D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield and the Sun Cure.”

摘要

The transcendental effect of sunlight on the human mind has long been represented inliterature. However, at the outset of the twentieth century, this representation wasdeeply impacted by the popularization of sunlight therapy, a change which forced artistsand scientists alike to rethink this seemingly simple element of the natural world.In this article, Kirsty Martin examines the ways in which the burgeoning interestin phototherapy impacted the work of modernist writers, with a special focus on D.H.Lawrence (particularly his short story, “Sun”) and Katherine Mansfield. Both writersunderwent phototherapy as a treatment for tuberculosis, which was consideredincurable at the time. Lawrence was first encouraged to take sun-baths in Mexico justprior to writing “Sun”, and Mansfield undertook both sun therapy and x-ray therapywhile living in France.