Teaching H.D.: Curriculum and Resources about H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
H.D.’s writings can play an important role in a variety of courses. Her “Helen” is widely anthologized in textbooks at various levels (secondary school and beyond). Her work is readily accessible and valuable in courses on poetry, life writing, experimental fiction, historical fiction, gender and sexuality studies, modernist studies, literature and psychoanalysis, literature and religion/spirituality, feminist theory, the modernist long poem, classics, literature and anthropology, children’s literature, literature and fairy tales, either world war, translation, epic poetry, and early film.
Recent syllabi pair H.D.’s Asphodel with Marianne Moore’s “Marriage” as a gender studies interrogation of that institution, or link H.D. with Robert Duncan/Susan Howe and William Carlos Williams with Charles Olson for an examination of the development of 20th century poetry.
Books
- Approaches to Teaching H.D.’s Poetry and Prose, edited by Annette Debo and Lara Vetter (MLA Press, 2011, ISBN #1603291024).
- The Cambridge Companion to H. D., edited by Nephie J. Christodoulides and Polina Mackay.
Online Resources
- Instructor’s Guide, H.D. Contributing editor, Susan Stanford Friedman, from the Heath Anthology.
- “Visual Aid: Teaching H.D.’s Imagist Poetry with the Assistance of Henri Matisse” by Christa Baiada, from Teaching American Literature (Winter 2008)
- Using a Visual Understanding Environment to Understand
Screen Shot of Node Map of H.D. Correspondents
- H.D.’s Circle of Correspondence
- Nicknames and Acronyms Used by H.D. and Her Circle
- H.D.’s Family Tree Online
- The H.D. Trilogy Wiki
- The H.D. Biography Wiki
Syllabi and Classroom Resources
- Victoria Papa’s Gender and Global Modernisms course integrates a unit on Wartime Trauma with H.D.’s Trilogy
- Tamara Beauchamp’s Modernist Subjectivities course features a unit on H.D.’s Tribute to Freud and Borderline
Student Work
- Young Poet’s Network Feature on “Ezra Pound, Imagism, and a Poetry Society Event” offers examples of young poets taking their inspiration by imagism and imagist poets like H.D. and Ezra Pound
- I Found It at the Watkinson! Sample of student archival work
Video Links
Become a Contributor
If you have a book, syllabus, reading list, or any other materials of use in teaching H.D. that you would like to share, please send them to Celena Kusch (ckusch@uscupstate.edu).
