The H.D. International Society invites paper abstracts for a proposed panel for the Modernist Studies Association conference (Pittsburgh, Nov. 6-9, 2014),  “Modernist Women after The Career of that Struggle: New Scholarship on H.D. and Her Circle.”In recognition of Rachel Blau DuPlessis’s position as keynote speaker for the 2014 conference, the H.D. International Society calls for contributions to a panel considering the legacy of her early criticism, H.D.: The Career of that Struggle(1986), and proposing new directions in modernist studies of H.D. and her circle. We are working with Rachel Blau DuPlessis about the possibility of having her respond to the papers in this panel.In her preface, DuPlessis maps women writers on a matrix of authority, including cultural authority, the authority of otherness/marginality, gender authority, and authorities of sexuality/eroticism, noting that achieving these forms of authority necessarily involves struggle. In the nearly three decades since DuPlessis made her argument, H.D. has gained significantly in the struggle for canonical status, and her writing and that of others in her circle has gained centrality, if not authority, within modernist studies. As we reflect both backward and forward on this body of scholarly work, how should scholars today define the career and the struggle of H.D. and/or other modernist women in her circle?

Submit brief bios and 250-word abstracts by April 20 to ckusch@uscupstate.edu and rawalsh@ncsu.edu.