FROM ROMANCE TU RITUAL: MYTH, RITUAL AND SUBVERSIÓN IN D.H. LAWRENCE'S THE VIRGIN AND THE GIPSY.

D.H. Lawrence's prose has always been characterised by a fierce attack on the tab„„s imposed by bourgeoi«ie, and by an interest in the mythic which as E n e Gould has pointed out, «lies in the eternal battle between the natural and the c.vUi-sed.> (1981-219). The context in whieh The Virgin and the Gpsy was wnt ten rem-foroed lawrence's appeal for myth in sueh a way that the Engüsh writer dee.ded to join bis voiee to that of bis contemporaries and advoeate a revival of myth. The am. of tbis paper is to present The Virgin and de Gipsy as a work that holds strong hnks witb the themes and structures of some classic fairy tales but whieh dev.ates from the sociahsing functions imposed on the folk tale from the IT' " eentury onwards. I 11 try to demónstrate that the aim of the tale is to aebieve a reestabhshment of the ne-at, original relationsbip between man and na ture in what is in fact an apology of n-tual and myht. D H Lawrence wrote The Virgin and the Gipsy in 1927. The Great War had been over for eight years, and Europe was slowly recovenng an apparen