Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Doolittle hilda'

The poet and novelist H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) published eleven essays on the cinema in the film journal Close Up between 1927 and 1929. This thesis analyses H.D.' s writing on film from a feminist perspective. It also explores the connections between her commentary on film and the feminist aspects of some of her fictional works. Largely based upon archival film research, this thesis incorporates a much greater amount of film history than has yet been brought to the study of H.D. Placing her within the cultural context of the time, it also represents the first extended examination of H.D. in relation to popular culture. The thesis is structured in three parts, each comprising two chapters and considering H.D.' s writings on film from a different viewpoint. In the first part, H.D.'s cultural position as a woman and film critic is debated. In assessing the impact of gender upon H.D.' s construction of a public, critical voice it is argued that the association of the feminine with popular forms of entertainment led H.D. to exaggerate her difference from the mass of cinema spectators. Evidence of H.D.' s contradictory position is found in the discrepancies between the highculture stance adopted in her film writing, and in the feminist themes and implied authorial positions in her novels Bid Me to Live (written in 1939) and Her (written in 1927). In the central section, H.D.' s critique of women in film is examined in the context of representations of women in silent cinema. Her commentary on film is found to contain astute remarks on the commodification of women on the screen, as well as a sophisticated and sustained attempt to theorize the position of the feminine in the visual economy, which bears comparison with contemporary feminist film scholarship. It is argued that H.D.'s feminist critique of the cinematic gaze re-emerges in the subversive narrative strategies of two novellas: Nights (1935) and 'Kora and Ka' (1935). In the third part, the focus narrows to analyse H.D.'s response to one particular film actress, namely Greta Garbo. The extent to which H.D. 's continuing re-evaluation of the cultural significance of the figure of Helen of Troy was inspired by Garbo's star image is deliberated. From the first encounter with Garbo's image on screen recorded in Close Up in 1927, to the meditations on a Garbo-like figure in The Usual Star (1934) and finally in the reworking of the myths of Helen in Helen in Egypt (1961) it is suggested that Garbo's screen career provided H.D. with a prototype on which to base increasingly complex ideas about women, narrative and identity. The strategy adopted in each section is to establish the feminist issues raised by H.D.' s essays on film, and then go on to explore these same issues as they arise in her fictional texts. Repeatedly, it is found that H.D.'s fictional work takes up a question treated with relative simplicity in Close Up and develops it into a complex meditation on the inter-relation between gender, power and art.

This thesis examines the literary deployment of the visual in the work of H. D. (Hilda Doolittle). Beginning with a discussion of the early poetry of Sca Garden (1916) and the essay Notes on Thought and Vision (1919), 1 argue that H. D. 's categorisation as an Imagist poet has effaced the political and aesthetic possibilities opened up by her prose and later work. H. D. *s representation of 'womb vision' in Notes on Thought and Vision can be seen to anticipate the notion of' the 'creating spectator' in the theoretical writings of the Soviet film director. Sergei Eisenstein. Thus, by considering Sea Garden alongside developments in early cinema, I re-evaluate the image in H. D. *s early work, and locate her poetics not as 'static" but as kinetic. H. D. was also directly involved in film-making and in the writing of film criticism. Chapter Two explores how her engagement with the moving image is inscribed into the autobiographical novel Her, written in 1917. Examining Her alongside the silent film Borderline (1930), which H. D. helped to produce, this chapter explores issues of sexual and racial difference which are foregrounded through the formal devices employed in both texts. Chapter Three examines Tile Gýfi, which was written during the Second World War, in the light of H. D. 's contributions to the film journal Close Up (1927-33). This reading not only illuminatcs the political and ideological implications of H. D. 's use of the visual, it explores the intersections between literary and visual cultures at the beginning of the twentieth century. Accounts of cinema are largely absent from the history of literary Modernism and the thesis therefore goes some way towards a revisionist analysis of the period. Chapter Four extends the paradigm of the visual in H. D. 's work still further, analysing her memoirs Tribute To Freud (1956) and the unpublished Mqiic Ring (1943-44) in the light of her involvement with spiritualism. Both these texts encode a critique of the scientific 'gaze' exemplified by psychoanalysis and offer possibilities for an alternative model of 'seeing' which is predicated upon spiritual, or visionary, experience. Returning to the discourse of the cinema in Chapter Five, I contextualise my reading of Helen in EDIpt (1961 ) within debates about synchronised sound in early cinema. I also explore H. D. 's construction of female subjectivity and corporeality in Helen in the light of recent feminist film theory. In many ways H. D. 's work anticipates the preoccupations of recent feminist thinkers such as Luce Irigaray, H616ne Cixous and Judith Butler. These writers - along with recent feminist film theorists like Mary Ann Doane and Laura n Mulvey - provide a theoretical underpinning for the thesis. Such an approach permits a questioning of H. D. 's perceived position as a 'Modernist' poet. Furthermore, in the light of postmodern preoccupations with process, fluidity and flux, it is possible to see how dominant configurations of gender and sexuality are. through H. D. 's work, deliberately, and consistently, unsettled.

Le poete americain h. D. (hilda doolittle) est nee en 1886 a bethlehem en pennsylvanie (u. S. A. ) dans une communaute morave, et morte en suisse en 1961. Elle vint en europe en 1911 pour rejoindre pound a londres et fonder le mouvement d'avant-garde qu'on appelle l'imagisme. H. D. Epouse un autre poete richard aldington dont elle est separee en 1919 et divorcee en 1937. Elle a une fille en mars 1919, apres avoir souffert de la guerre et de la mort de son frere et celle de son pere. La meme annee, h. D. Visite la grece en 1920, l'egypte en 1923 en compagnie de son amie bryher qui partagera sa vie jusqu'en 1961. Elle ecrit des 1912 des poemes lyriques courts, concis, haletants, qu'on appelle "crystal clear", etiquette qui restera longtemps. Elle subit une crise d'inspiration dans les annees trente et entreprend aupres de freud une psychanalyse dont elle tirera un memoire, en deux versions, qui sont etudiees ici pour comprendre le phenomene, la creativite. Liberee par la psychanalyse, elle ecrit un poeme en trois volets, d'inspiration mystique et hermetique, d'un style nouveau, notamment un vers long et fluide. Elle passe les annees de guerre a londres, et les bombardements apparaissent dans son oeuvre. Les annees d'apres-guerre sont fertiles, elle ecrit de nombreux memoires inedits, et un long poeme epique helen in egypt. Une autre serie de poemes regroupes sous le titre hermetic definition atteste de sa maturite. Elle s'est efforcee de nier toute polarite due au sexisme, a toujours cherche a effacer les limites entre deux principes opposes, en les faisant fusionner dans l'image: guerre amour,m f. .<br>The american poet h. D. (hilda doolittle) was born in 1886 in bethlehem, pennsylvania (u. S. A. ) in a moravian community. She died in switzerland in 1961 after spending almost all her life in europe where she had come to meet pound in 1911. They founded an avant-garde movement called imagism. She married a fellow poet richard aldington, they were separated in 1919 and divorced in 1937. She had a daughter in march 1919, and suffered the deaths of brother and father the same year. H. D. Visited greece in 1920, egypt in 1923 with her lifelong friend bryher. H. D. Started writing short lyrical poems in 1912, which were labelled "crystal clear", a criticism which followed her all her life. She underwent a crisis in inspiration in the thirties and consulted freud in vienna twice. Psychoanalysis was the source of two memoirs, one written on a day-to-day basis, the other ten years later. The comparison between the two memoirs enables the reader to understand the change in style in her later work. She spent the war years in london and the scene inspired her in her work, she published trilogy, a three-part poem both mystical and occult, after the war she wrote several unpublished memoirs, published her epic poem helen in egypt, then in 1974, posthumously, hermetic definition which comprises a tribute to st jphn perse and to pound and shows her maturity

H.D.'s autobiographical novel HERmione is phenomenological in texture. It portrays both sides of a dynamic process: the individual "creates" the world by adjusting a "psychic lens," projecting a mental space in which objects can appear; yet at the same time, the world imposes itself on the sensing subject. The framework within which this dynamic process occurs is the body; as the novel portrays, the body is the site of juxtapositions and transformations as it comes into contact with the world. In this article, I discuss the ways in which H.D. explores the boundaries and intersections between the human body and the world around it. I will draw on several influential feminist critiques of the novel, exploring how these critiques illuminate the social and sexual forces at work behind Hermione's experiences, and I will in turn introduce phenomenological theory to expand upon the prevailing critical view of the novel. I assert that Hermione's body is both the setting and the subject of HERmione. Even as she is objectified by both specific individuals and by the social forces at work in her world, her body reacts in unique ways to counteract this tendency. Her body transforms, and her perceptions blur the lines between subject and object, person and thing. As Hermione begins to develop an understanding of the way she encounters the world, she also develops the ability to act within it. Her body becomes prosthetic, encompassing otherness and ultimately allowing her to move beyond the relationships and expectations which threaten to confine her in a solely "decorative" life.

In the canon of twentieth century American poetry, "long poems" or "anti-epics" or epic poems represent a formidable genre. Defining epic poetry has proved difficult in our modern era, and the possibility that women might write epics is not often considered. This study includes a review of the literature that may define the epic genre and of the literature that contributes to our understanding of a tradition of women's poetry in American literature. The review of both issues--possible epic poetry and women's poetic tradition--is a necessary prerequisite for considering the argument that H.D.'s iielen in Eavpt and Gwendolyn Brooks's In the Mecca are twentieth century epics. With the focus on a female heroine, on personal and interpersonal values, and on a reconsideration of cultural lieroism, these poems are important literary contributions in addition to being "revised" epics.A revision of the epic signifies that the poet has found a way to accomplish individual expression in this familiar genre, a genre characterized by narration, cultural themes that may be didactic, and multiple voices for the poet. H.D. and Brooks have revised the genre of epic poetry in unusual ways. H.D. has taken a legendary figure, Helen of Troy, and made her the primary speaker and the seeker of truth. Instead of the classical glorification of war, Helen's quest includes a renunciation of war and a reconsideration of the ways we know ourselves and our history. Brooks has made an "unknown" black woman the center of her urban epic. Mrs. Sallie's quest, initiated by the real search for a missing daughter, becomes a quest for the meaning of family, community, and selfhood.Revising the genre was a unique process for both H.D. and Brooks, and studying Helen and Mecca together emphasizes the diverse traditions--literary and nonliterary--that may elucidate our understanding of each poem. Moreover, only refers to a "a genre revised" by H.D. and Brooks not only refers to a revision of epic poetry but to poetry as a whole. Each woman created her own blend of "traditions and individual talent" in order to produce Helen in Egypt and In the Mecca.<br>Department of English

ix, 267 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.<br>In English literary studies, classical epic poetry is typically regarded as a masculinist genre that imparts and reinforces the values of dominant culture. The Iliad , Odyssey , and Aeneid , after all, were written by men, feature male heroes, and recount the violent events that gave rise to the misogynistic societies of ancient Greece and Rome. Yet, in the twentieth century, women poets have found inspiration for their feminist projects in these ostensibly masculinist poems. The four poets in this study, for example, have drawn from the work of Homer and Virgil to criticize the ways that conventional conceptions of gender identity have impaired both men and women. One might expect, and indeed, most critics argue, that women like H.D., Gwendolyn Brooks, Louise Glück, and Anne Carson invoke their classical predecessors only to reject them and the repressive values that they represent. Close readings of these poets' work, however, demonstrate that, far from dismissing the ancient poems, Helen in Egypt , Annie Allen , Meadowlands , and Autobiography of Red are deeply invested in them, finding in them models for their own social critiques. The work of these four poets emphasizes that the classical epics are not one-dimensional celebrations of violence and traditional masculinity. Indeed, the work of Homer and Virgil expresses anxiety about the misogynistic values of the heroic code to which its warriors adhere, and it urges that war and violence are antithetical to civilized society. In examining the ways that modern women poets have drawn from these facets of the ancient works to condemn the sexism, racism, and heterocentrism of contemporary culture, my dissertation seeks to challenge the characterization of classical epic that prevails in English literary studies and to assert the necessity of understanding the complexity of the ancient texts that inspire modern poets. Taking an intertextual approach, I hope to show that close readings of the classical epics facilitate our understanding of how and why modern women have engaged the work of their ancient predecessors and that this knowledge, in turn, emphasizes that the epic genre is more complex than we have recognized and that its tradition still flourishes.<br>Committee in charge: Karen Ford, Chairperson, English; Paul Peppis, Member, English; Steven Shankman, Member, English; P. Lowell Bowditch, Outside Member, Classics

This study situates the literary works of Amy Lowell, Djuna Barnes, H.D., and Gertrude Stein in a genealogy of American modernist war writing by women that disrupts and revises patriarchal war narrative. These authors take ownership of war and war-related trauma as subjects for women writers. Combining the theories of Dominick LaCapra, Judith Butler, Elaine Scarry, and Elizabeth Grosz with close readings of primary texts, I offer feminist analyses that account for trauma and real-world materiality in literary representations of female embodiment in wartime. This framework enables an interdisciplinary discussion that focuses on representations of war and trauma in conjunction with identity politics.I examine Lowell's poetry collection Men, Women and Ghosts (1916), Barnes's novel Nightwood (1936), H.D.'s poem Trilogy (1944-1946), and Stein's novel Mrs. Reynolds (1952). The chapters highlight the progressively feminist and personal ownership of war and trauma embedded in the texts. Lowell and Barnes begin the work of deconstructing gendered binary constructions and inserting women into war narrative, and H.D. and Stein continue this trajectory through cultivation of more pronounced depictions of women and their bodies in war narrative.The strategies are distinct and specific to each author, but there are common characteristics in their literary responses to World War I and World War II. Each author protests war: war is destructive for Lowell, perverse for Barnes, traumatic for H.D., and disruptive for Stein. Additionally, each author renders female bodies as sites of contested identity and as markers of presence in war narrative. The female bodies portrayed are often traumatized and marked by the ravages of war: bodily injury and psychological and emotional distress. H.D. and Stein envision strategies for resolving (if only partially) trauma, but Lowell and Barnes do not.This project recovers alternative war narratives by important American modernist women writers, expands the definition and canon of war literature, contributes new scholarship on works by the selected authors, and constructs an original critical framework. The ramifications of this study are an increased awareness of who was writing about war and the shape that responses to it took in avant-garde literature of the early twentieth century.<br>Department of English

Historically, women have not been "speaking subjects" but "spoken objects" in Western culture--the ground on which male-dominated constructions have been erected. In literature, women have been conventionally held as the silent and silenced other. Lyric poetry especially has idealized not only the entrenched figures of masculine subject/feminine object, but poetry itself as the site of prophecy, vision, Truth. Most dramatically in lyric poetry then, the issue of women as subjects has been collapsed into Woman as object, that figure who has been the sacrifice necessary for the production of lyric "song" and the consolidation of the unified masculine voice. It has thus been difficult for women poets to take up the position of speaking subject, most particularly because of women's problematic relationship to Woman. Recent feminist theorists have explored female subjectivity, how women put into hegemonic discourse "a possible operation of the feminine." This dissertation analyzes that possibility in poetry as exemplified in the works of Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, and H.D. I contend that these paradigmatic American poets constitute speaking subjects in their poetry that both figure Woman conventionally and reconfigure it, i.e. subvert the stability of those representations, thereby disturbing our view. I argue that this double identification produces, in effect, a divided or split subjectivity that is enabling for the female speaker. As an alternative to the traditionally specularized figure of Woman then, such a position opens up distinctly counter-hegemonic spaces in which to constitute the female subject, rendering problematic readerly consumption of the image of Woman as a totality. I explore the attempts to represent women's difference differently--the tenuous accession to, rejection of, or play with the lyric "I" in these poets' works. Dickinson, Moore, and H.D. reconfigure Woman and inscribe female speakers as grammatically and rhetorically, but not necessarily visually, present, thereby frustrating patriarchal economies of mastery and possession.

<p>This dissertation traces invocations and theories of electric power in modernist literature by women, showing how four modernist authors—Edith Wharton, Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), Olive Moore, and Jean Rhys—deploy electricity in their fiction and highlight its varied and contradictory cultural meanings. Modernist literature by women leverages the open and strange impressions from the era of what electricity might mean, so that authors might make their own arguments about where artistic impulses originate, how homes would change when they became wired, how modernization would change modernist art forms, or why some social spaces gleam brighter than others. Edith Wharton and Jean Rhys highlight cultural and class system dynamics with their electric metaphors and electrically wired settings, in which they fuse mental states with modern atmospheres. H.D. and Olive Moore explore how women experience artistic inspiration, as either a transcendent space of unlimited possibility for the former, or as proof of the limitations of gender for the latter. </p>

My dissertation examines the correlations between the natural and supernatural, agency and authority, and meaning and language in the work of the modernist American writers H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) and Djuna Barnes. Using the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, Melanie Klein, and Nicholas Abraham and Maria Torok, I argue that the different kinds of spectral and otherworldly figures that appear in these works – ghosts, the living dead, divinities, individuals who are also amorphous multiplicities – correlate to the modes of negation of parental imperatives that structure the language-use of their authors. I contrast H.D.‘s and Barnes‘s visions of the relation of language to meaning and the personal to the social using Lacan‘s delineation of the different modes of psychic negation that enable or disable language use: repression, disavowal, and foreclosure. According to this model, H.D.‘s work evidences foreclosure: a mode of thought and language that fails to differentiate words, thoughts, and people from one another. This incapacity endangers the psyche with the hallucinatory return of or haunting by what cannot be symbolized. In contrast, Barnes‘s work suggests disavowal, and her language renders experience in distorted forms. She repudiates power figures and the unspeakable meanings associated with them, but her work portrays the spectral, surreptitious return of these figures and meanings. Writing that witnesses or stages a return to a state of non-difference between symbol and symbolized, as Barnes‘s and H.D.‘s work does, calls for different interpretative and methodological strategies than those usual in literary criticism. To read such work primarily as symbolic communication is to lose perspective on the structures of thought and language that it grapples with. A perspective that is rigorous and radically different from the works‘ own is necessary to produce readings of it that make symbolic ―sense,‖ though it is unable to fully account for experiences that are not conceivable. To this end, I describe ―disorders,‖ types of thought and language that psychoanalysis implicates in interminable human suffering, without drawing conclusions about the range of experiences that might be concurrent with asymbolic or anti-symbolic thought and writing.<br>Graduate<br>2019-08-31<br>0298<br>0591

Studies of women’s experimental narrative in the twentieth century have often been fixed to political interests in the recovery of women’s artistic practices for inclusion in the canons of literary modernism and formal postmodernism. Concurrent trends in philosophy and critical theory, however, propose the interrogation of the limits of subjectivity itself, suggesting that the most provocative assertions about human experience eschew the very categorical delimitations, like gender, on which such recovery projects depend. This dissertation traces the literary investments of women, particularly queer women, whose experiments in life-writing reconfigure the boundaries of human subjects without relinquishing claims to the material or political conditions that shape their lives. “Rough Text” examines writing that queers or complicates autobiography by featuring self-referential protagonists whose lives illustrate the explosive consequences of both gender and genre manipulation. Writing themselves by unfastening themselves textually, temporally, and spatially, these authors do a liberating violence to their own coherence that shakes, and then rethinks, the grounds of their ontologies in ways that offer alternatives to the “psychological squalor” Fredric Jameson describes as the postmodern condition.