Modernist Hellenism: Pound, Eliot, H.D., and the Translation of Greece

Modernist Hellenism argues that engagement with Greek was central to the evolution of modernist poetics throughout the first half of the twentieth century. It shows that Eliot, Pound, and H.D. all turn to Greek literature, and increasingly Greek tragedy, as they attempt to grapple not only with their own evolving poetics but also with changing sociocultural circumstances at large. Revisiting major modernist works from the perspective of each poet's translations and adaptations from Greek, and drawing on archival materials, the book distinguishes Pound and H.D.'s work from Eliot's and argues for the existence of a specifically modernist hellenism (rather than, say, classicizing or idealizing, decadent or heretical), which is personal, politicized, and unconstrained by institutional standards, but also profoundly textual, language-based, and engaged with classical scholarship. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

About the Author

KATERINA STERGIOPOULOU is an Assistant Professor of Classics and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University. Her work on the afterlives of Greek antiquity in twentieth-century writing has appeared in journals including Comparative Literature and October. She is co-editor of Brill's Companion to the Reception of Sappho (forthcoming 2024).