H.D. and "The Contest": archaeology of a Sapphic gaze.(poet Hilda Doolittle's work; Greek poet Sappho)

From: Twentieth Century Literature | Date: June 22, 1998| Author: Keeling, Bret L. | Copyright information

The influence of the classical Greek poet Sappho on the works of Hilda Doolittle could be seen in the latter's adoption of a gender-ambiguous pseudonym to evade male-biased judgements of her work. However, it is inaccurate to interpret her works as mere mutinous reactions to a male-dominated field. Her poem 'The Contest' exhibited the symmetric qualities of classical poetry, as well as the evolution of people's sexual thought from the objectification of the beloved to a metaphorical descripti...

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