The Italian Language and the Consequent Cultural Contamination in D.H Lawrence's Works

D.H. Lawrence’s recurring use of Italian words concerns not only his literary works with an Italian setting such as his travel books, or his poems entitled Birds Beasts and Flowers, or his novels (The Lost Girl, Aaron’s Rod), or his novellas (Sun), or his essays (“Man is a Hunter”, “David”, “Flowery Tuscany”), but also his Mexican travel book (Mornings in Mexico) or his essays on Art. His fascination with Italy brought him not only to wish to be called Lorenzo, a name which somehow is the Italian translation of Lawrence, but also to pay attention to Italian food. Thus, Lawrence’s use of Italian seems to point out, although indirectly, how strongly he was fascinated by the Italian cultural background and how strongly he ended up to be culturally contaminated, as his entire literary production easily reveals. An example of this is offered by the choice of the Italian stylistic form of the novella that he adopted. Another example is given by the fact that in “The Virgin and the Gipsy” (which was written at the end of Lawrence’s sojourn in Italy) there are recurrent references to food, which is a typically Italian topics, although the setting of the story is England.