Way Back into the Light: Reading H.D.’s Trilogy as a Female Quest for Post-Trauma Rebirth

• Main Authors: Chiang Yu, 余嬙
• Other Authors: Chen-Chen Tseng
• Format: Others
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/h6ruq7

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 英美語文學系 === 105 === This thesis intends to read H.D.’s Trilogy as a literary example of overcoming female as well as war trauma in human history by remaking goddess myth. As a female being, the speaker in H.D.’s Trilogy finds herself alone in the struggle against living crisis on both personal and political level. Unlike many witnesses found in war writings who presented solely victims, the speaker, by projecting redeeming visions, aspires to help the world regain hope out of ruins after air-raid devastation. Having been traumatized by the patriarchal system, along with the destructions of the two World Wars, the speaker in the epic poem Trilogy envisions spiritual recovery through revering and elevating female deities of various ancient myths. By redefining femininity in this way, the speaker believes, the wounds of female trauma can be healed and world peace is reachable. To be released from the civilizational cage, however, one has to understand why and what caused the pain. This thesis will thus firstly deal with approaches to trauma theory, followed in the second chapter by a review of H.D.’s personal life recollected in her autobiographical novel HERmione and further depicted by writers of her biography. A plot emerges, I propose, H.D. proves herself an abandoned woman transformed into a visionary poet, if we connect her life tormented by trauma with her works that later earn her the position as an extraordinary modernist writer in the 20th century. Finally, in the third chapter a full analysis of Trilogy will go through each section looking into visions H.D. has attained in her female quest for reclaiming self-awareness, more specifically, as a way back into the light of life for herself and for the world devastated by two world wars.