Biblical Mythopoeia, Gendered War and Sexuality in D. H. Lawrence's ‘Samson and Delilah’

Grouped together with modernism's most eminent authors, D. H. Lawrence has been appreciated for his idiosyncratic response to his time and literary modernism. A good deal of critical attention has been given to his contribution to modernist fiction and, in this context, the present article focuses on some crucial aspects of Lawrence's modernism not hitherto addressed in his short story ‘Samson and Delilah’ (1917), in England, My England (1922). By reading ‘Samson and Delilah’ through the lens of modernist mythopoeia, this article aims to highlight Lawrence's reformulation of the biblical story as a way to come to terms with gendered war in national and personal spheres.