Emerging Perspectives in H.D.’s Hellenic Modernity and the Future of New Modernist Studies Hybrid Conference 25-26 May 2024

International Symposium (hybrid) co-organized by Aristotle University, Thessaloniki (Greece), Athens College (Greece), & University of Alberta (Canada)

Date: 25-26 May, 2024

Venue: Amphitheater I – Research Dissemination Centre AUTH

The writings, travels, and all forms of pilgrimage or periegetic homage of early twentieth century Modernist authors and artists reveal that their pursuits were imbued with the desire to decipher and understand the conditions of their own modernity. In H.D.’s writings, the notion of antiquity was not just linked to the Classic period, but it served as a trope to better comprehend the modernist angst of dispersion. But it was en route to Athens, Delphi, and Corfu when she and her lifelong partner, novelist, poet, and essayist Bryher (Winnifred Ellerman) were able to envision her “Greek stories.”

H.D.’s Hellenism appears to be a world resistant to postwar materiality charged with a “sense of persistent incipience, glimpses into beckoning ruins” as Susan McCabe notes in her study An Untold Love Story of Modernism. And though H.D. talks about her “Greek Novel,” the elusive, finalized version of this text is never retrieved in its entirety because her Greek novel has many versions: it is published and unpublished, it is present and vocal, it is taciturn and buried in her palimpsestic writings as well as half-concealed in scraps of journals, and in the lengthier poems she produced in the course of time as she was writing or not writing.

The International Symposium (hybrid) to be hosted by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki will attempt to re-visit and re-assemble H.D. ‘s Greek stories in the physical space where they were inspired. This interdisciplinary and international two-day event brings together an array of distinguished modernism scholars from Canada, U.S.A., and Europe in an attempt to re-envision the foundational contribution of Hellenism and Hellenic civilization within and outside the historical, cultural and linguistic premises of Modernism in relation to and beyond H.D.’s oeuvre.

Keynote speakers:

Susan McCabe (University of Southern California, U.S.A.)

Demetres Tryphonopoulos (University of Alberta, Canada)

For the symposium Program, registration information, and additional details, check the Symposium webpage.

For further inquiries, contact: modernism@enl.auth.gr

Organizing Committee:

Anna Fyta, Ph.D., (Independent Scholar, IB Instructor), Athens College, Greece

Tatiani Rapatzikou, Ph.D., (Associate Professor, Head of Dept. of American Literature and Culture, School of English), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Demetres Tryphonopoulos, Ph.D., (Dean & Executive Officer), University of Alberta, Augustana Campus, Canada

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Bryher and Havelock Ellis in “Language, Labels and Categories” panel at Transformations Conference

two juxtaposed photos of Bryher, one as a young woman with long hair, and the second with short hair and wearing a militaristic suitDiscussing the insufficiency of labels and categories for gender and sexuality, panelists in the History 2 Workshop  explored the cases of Bryher, Havelock Ellis, and several other twentieth-century artists, writers, and intellectuals. The panel was part of Transformations: Exploring the History of Science and Gender, an interdisciplinary conference in Exeter, UK.
logo banner from the Transformations conference

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Events in Finding H.D.: A Year-Long Celebration of Hilda Doolittle in Bethlehem, PA

Finding HD 2019: A Community Exploration poster with photo portraits of H.D.
Finding HD 2019 Web Page at the Bethlehem Public Library

Lehigh University, the Bethlehem Area Public Library, Mock Turtle Marionette Theater, and the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center are joining forces to promote a year of community engagement with H.D. and her legacy. The year of events will culminate in the debut of a new play in October 2019.

A complete calendar of events is available online.

Find out more about the people and projects in this Morning Call news article.

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Bethlehem Area Public Library Dedicates Plaque to H.D. at Former Site of Her Childhood Home

Lehigh University Flier Announcing the dedication of a new plaque honoring H.D.

Unlike many of the beautifully-preserved Moravian buildings of Bethlehem, PA, H.D.’s childhood home did not survive. On the site now stand the City Hall and, perhaps fittingly, the Bethlehem Area Public Library. In September 2017, United for Libraries named the site one of 160 literary landmarks. For a local newspaper story about the dedication, see The Morning Call‘s “Literary Landmark in Bethlehem Named in Honor of Hilda Doolittle.”

1874 Map of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, showing Helen Wolle’s family home

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Join the H.D. International Society at the American Literature Association, Boston, 2017

American Literature Association Conference Web Page Screen ShotThe H.D. International Society invites scholars at the American Literature Association Conference in Boston to join us for “H.D.’s Aesthetics of Resistance.” From queering translation to surviving the blitz, H.D. is dedicated to resisting conventions and creating new literary forms for envisioning the new.

Friday May 26, 2017
11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Session 9-F H.D.’s Aesthetics of Resistance (Essex North Center, 3rd Floor) Organized by the H.D. International Society Chair: Celena Kusch, University of South Carolina Upstate

  1. “‘This beauty is too much’: H.D. and Queering Translation,” Christian Bancroft, University of Houston
  2. “Sex & the Over-Soul: H.D.’s Vision and the Birthing Body,” Alyssa Leann Duck, Emory University
  3. “Psychic Blitzkrieg: Air Raids, Architecture and the Afterlife in the Wartime Literature of H.D.,” Sean Richardson, Nottingham Trent University
  4. “‘Looking into the Future’: H.D., William Morris, and Delia Alton,” Bret Keeling, Northeastern University
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CFP and new journal launch: Feminist Modernist Studies (4/15/17)

Photograph of H.D. in pants and a jacket leaning back, seated on a blanket on a rocky hill. Undated. From Beinecke Library, Digital Collections, H.D. Papers.The new journal Feminist Modernist Studies has launched, with many congratulations to Cassandra Laity, founding editor. Please see the call for papers for the first issue, a double issue, through the link, and feel free to circulate widely. The deadline is April 15:

http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/ah/feministmodernist-studies-launch-cfp

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CFP: “Feminist/Queer Temporality” panel at MSA, Amsterdam, Aug 10-13 (deadline 1/27/17)

Photo of H.D., Norman Holmes Pearson, and Bryher at Yale UniversityThe H.D. International Society invites paper submissions for the proposed panel it is organizing, “Feminist/Queer Temporality,” for the Modernist Studies Association conference in Amsterdam, August 10-13, 2017. In keeping with MSA 19’s main theme,  “Modernism Today,” and one of its subthemes, “Modernist Chronologies,” we seek papers that examine what modernist women writers do with history, deep time, plural vs. singular temporalities, speed, nostalgia, or futurity. How do modernist women writers (H.D. and/or her female modernist contemporaries) produce feminist or queer temporality?

Please send a 250 word paper abstract and a brief bio/CV to Rebecca Walsh at rawalsh@ncsu.edu by January 27, 2017.

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SAMLA 2016 CFP: “New Directions: H.D. and/or Her Circle” panel (abstracts due 5/15/16)

We invite paper proposals for a panel called “New Directions: H.D. and/or Her Circle” at this year’s South Atlantic MLA in Jacksonville, FL, November 4-6, 2016.

Papers may focus on work by H.D. and/or any of the many writers, filmmakers, and artists in her circle (Bryher, Kenneth MacPherson, Marianne Moore, Richard Aldington, Robert Herring, Sigmund Freud, John Cournos, Ezra Pound, and Paul and Eslanda Robeson constitute a partial list). The thematic focus of the panel is open to a range of new approaches, though we welcome papers that address SAMLA 2016’s conference theme, “Utopia/Dystopia: Whose Paradise Is It?”

Please send 250-word abstracts, a brief bio, and A-V requests to rawalsh@ncsu.edu by May 15, 2016.

For more information about SAMLA 2016, please visit

https://samla.memberclicks.net/

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MSA 2016 CFP: “The Pool Film Group and Beyond: Modernism’s Media” panel (abstracts due 4/12/16)

The H.D. International Society invites paper submissions for a proposed panel, “The Pool Film Group and Beyond: Modernism’s Media,” at the Modernist Studies Association conference, November 17-20, 2016, in Pasadena, CA. We are especially interested in work that considers Bryher, H.D., and/or Kenneth Macpherson’s involvement with the Pool  film group or that in other ways focuses on media technologies and/or media industries in relation to their circle. Please send a brief bio and 250 word abstract to Rebecca Walsh (rawalsh@ncsu.edu) and Celena Kusch (ckusch@uscupstate.edu) by April 12.

For more information about MSA 2016 in Pasadena, here is the conference link:
https://msa.press.jhu.edu/conferences/msa18/

 

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MLA 2017 CFP, “Pound, H.D., and Bryher” (abstracts due 3/28/16)

The Ezra Pound Society is organizing the following panel as a guaranteed session at the Modern Language Assn. Convention, January 5-8, 2017, in Philadelphia, PA. Due to an electronic glitch this CFP does not appear on the MLA website, but it does appear on the Ezra Pound Society website.

CFP: “Pound, H.D. and Bryher”:

Examinations of H.D.’s and Bryher’s engagement/disengagement with Pound’s aesthetics, literary works, and political activities throughout their careers. 250-word abstract and a brief bio. by 28 March 2016 to Demetres Tryphonopoulos (tryphonopoulosd@BrandonU.ca) and Sara Dunton (sara.dunton@unb.ca).

Please direct any preliminary questions to Sara Dunton. For more information about MLA 2017, here is the conference website:

https://www.mla.org/Convention/MLA-2017

Please contact Sara Dunton with any preliminary inquiries

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