Hellenic by Design: H.D., Architecture, and Future Modernism

Modernist poet H.D. saw ancient Greek words as portals and gates to new ways of writing. Her Imagist poems often push against the medium of the printed page, taking on qualities of Classical artifacts and modernist paintings. What happens when H.D.’s Hellenism generates literal portals for architect...

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Main Authors: Marsha Bryant, Charlie Hailey
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 2023-12-01
Series:Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/ExCentric/article/view/9537
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author Marsha Bryant
Charlie Hailey
author_facet Marsha Bryant
Charlie Hailey
author_sort Marsha Bryant
collection DOAJ
description Modernist poet H.D. saw ancient Greek words as portals and gates to new ways of writing. Her Imagist poems often push against the medium of the printed page, taking on qualities of Classical artifacts and modernist paintings. What happens when H.D.’s Hellenism generates literal portals for architectural design? And how might these crossings of materials and academic disciplines foretell future modernisms? This essay reconsiders H.D.’s Imagist practice to propose that her iconic poems are not painterly at heart, but architectural.   Collaborating as a literary critic and an architect, we bring these early poems into conversation with recent work from an undergraduate design studio in the University of Florida’s School of Architecture. Our analysis also offers an ex-centric narrative of modernist making—one that considers the outlier spaces housing H.D.’s vanguard poems, the ways “Oread” occupies the space of the page and its spatial transformations, and the poem’s provocations for emergent spaces in students’ design projects. Crossing materials and disciplinary thresholds, the future of modernist poetry will create and occupy new spaces in the university curriculum.
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spelling doaj.art-0a8e9fc918244376b1b38790bd351fbb2024-04-17T11:00:43ZengSchool of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GreeceEx-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media2585-35382023-12-0107547210.26262/exna.v0i7.95378346Hellenic by Design: H.D., Architecture, and Future ModernismMarsha Bryant0Charlie Hailey1University of FloridaUniversity of FloridaModernist poet H.D. saw ancient Greek words as portals and gates to new ways of writing. Her Imagist poems often push against the medium of the printed page, taking on qualities of Classical artifacts and modernist paintings. What happens when H.D.’s Hellenism generates literal portals for architectural design? And how might these crossings of materials and academic disciplines foretell future modernisms? This essay reconsiders H.D.’s Imagist practice to propose that her iconic poems are not painterly at heart, but architectural.   Collaborating as a literary critic and an architect, we bring these early poems into conversation with recent work from an undergraduate design studio in the University of Florida’s School of Architecture. Our analysis also offers an ex-centric narrative of modernist making—one that considers the outlier spaces housing H.D.’s vanguard poems, the ways “Oread” occupies the space of the page and its spatial transformations, and the poem’s provocations for emergent spaces in students’ design projects. Crossing materials and disciplinary thresholds, the future of modernist poetry will create and occupy new spaces in the university curriculum.https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/ExCentric/article/view/9537architectureclassicsdesignh.d.imagismlouis kahnmodernismpedagogypoetry
spellingShingle Marsha Bryant
Charlie Hailey
Hellenic by Design: H.D., Architecture, and Future Modernism
Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media
architecture
classics
design
h.d.
imagism
louis kahn
modernism
pedagogy
poetry
title Hellenic by Design: H.D., Architecture, and Future Modernism
title_full Hellenic by Design: H.D., Architecture, and Future Modernism
title_fullStr Hellenic by Design: H.D., Architecture, and Future Modernism
title_full_unstemmed Hellenic by Design: H.D., Architecture, and Future Modernism
title_short Hellenic by Design: H.D., Architecture, and Future Modernism
title_sort hellenic by design h d architecture and future modernism
topic architecture
classics
design
h.d.
imagism
louis kahn
modernism
pedagogy
poetry
url https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/ExCentric/article/view/9537
work_keys_str_mv AT marshabryant hellenicbydesignhdarchitectureandfuturemodernism
AT charliehailey hellenicbydesignhdarchitectureandfuturemodernism