Inbetween Myth and Writing One’s Self: Woolf, H.D. and Bryher on Modernism, Myth and Biographical Writing

In this essay I would like to analyse biographical writing by three female modernist writers: H.D.’s HERmione, Bryher’s A Heart to Artemis, and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. How do these biographic novels draw on mythology to constitute the writing woman (of modernism)? At first, I would like to analyse these novels with regard to the question of how they try to articulate a biography of a female writer against the lack of historical models. Here, I would like to add readings of Virginia Woolfs A Room of One’s Own, as a take on the issue of missing cultural history of female writing. Secondly, the implementation of mythology in these texts will be analysed. Here I would like to add readings of H.D.’s Helen in Egypt, as a take on the issue of missing literary and cultural representation of women by women. Lastly, I would like to establish how these female authors are writing themselves in relation to the man-centred artistic world of their time. Here I would like to add reading of Gertrude Stein’s Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, as a take on the competition of female writers with their male counterparts at their time.