Fragments of Desire
Sapphic Fictions in Works by H.D., Judy Grahn, and Monique Wittig
Published on 1. April 1999
Book
Paperback/Softback
154 pages
978-3-631-33642-7 (ISBN)
Description
Tracing the influence of Sappho's fragmented literary legacy on three 20th-century women writers - H.D., Judy Grahn, and Monique Wittig - this book discusses Sapphic fiction as a genre that emerged throughout the 20th century. H.D., Grahn, and Wittig represent three movements that have shaped the approach to the sexual subject and her desires: modernism, cultural feminism, and poststructuralism respectively. H.D. responds to Sappho with an imagistic style that resembles Sappho's terse and clipped lines. Grahn recreates the idea of Lesbos as a model for a women-centered society. Wittig, writing from a poststructuralist background, alludes to Sappho in her fierce critique of myth and language. This study draws on recent debates about the history of sexuality, the body, and the construction of the self, and is meant as a contribution to the ongoing debate on how gender is constructed in modernist and postmodernist discourse.
More details
Person
The Author: Johanna Dehler studied German Philology, English, and American Studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. While on a Fulbright scholarship, she completed an M.A. in English Literature at the University of Tulsa, where she worked as an editorial intern at Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Innsbruck; her dissertation on the influence of Sappho on three 20th-century women writers received the 1997 Siemens-Austria award for best dissertation. She has taught at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Tulsa.
Content
Contents: Sapphism: The Development of a New Genre - H.D.'s Quest for the Gendered Subject, or, the Multiple Layers of Sapphic Modernism - Judy Grahn's House of Women, or, Sappho and Cultural Feminism - Monique Wittig's Desiring-Machines, or, Sapphism's Trojan Horses.