Becoming HERmione. An exploration of the process of subjectivity in H.D.'s Her

Abstract

This thesis calls for a reevaluation of H.D.'s prose oeuvre through a close reading of the novel Her. As H.D.'s prose texts were discovered in the late seventies, they were read as manifestations of a feminist modernism that contested the male-dominated canon. This reading shifts the attention from H.D.'s position as a female artist to her text. Through the prism of Hélène Cixous's subject at risk" and Julia Kristeva's subject-in-process/on-trial," I explore the making of the female subject that H.D. creates in her narrative. By focusing on the novel's presentation of becoming, I present Her as an engaging, processual text that rejects its feminist label and invites continuous inquiry.