An Introduction of the Literary Portrait of H.D.

As a modernist woman writer, H.D. could best be described as an advocate of experimentation and change. F. S. Flint, an early representative member of the movement of Imagism, discusses the ideological core of this generation that does not endorse a single form but demonstrates "a free spirit". Flint's remarks reveal that the aim of this new generation is to discover new forms of artistic expression. His views match equally well with H.D.'s heretic practices and her need to escape from generic protocols. The literary modernist movement emerges as a need to revise, correct, destroy, and restore constructively a world in crisis. The experimentation with literary genres, the invention of generic hybrids, the fragmentary structure of verse, intertextuality and translation are a few examples of the paths the early literary modernists pursued. Their effort should be seen in tandem with an overall deeper cultural need for revisiting the past in order to effect changes in contemporary language and culture. Along with these creative practices, the rebirth of epic poetry engenders neo-epics as new repositories of contemporary history or as retrospective re-readings of the ancient classical works that find their analogies in the present moment. In this context, the past is used not as a theoretical, academic tool of imitation of bygone cultures and civilizations but, rather, as a tool for the renewal and the purgation of language from academic pedanticism. During the first thirty years of the twentieth century, H.D. was actively connected with, and contributed to, the movement of Imagism. This formative period, crucial to H.D.'s evolution as poet and artist, is part of the investigation of this book. All three modernist currents converge with her Hellenic projects in lyric poetry and her first experimentations with Euripides' oeuvre. Of key importance if her emphasis on the renewal of the English language through the use and translation of classical languages as a redemptive medium that can allow for innovative work and experimentation with regard to poetry writing and poetic forms.