Mythopoetic Resonances: Intertextual Appropriation of Classical Mythology in Modernist British Poetry

Wenting Zhu

doi:10.54691/2t12x856

Authors

Wenting Zhu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54691/2t12x856

Keywords:

Classical mythology; intertextuality; mythopoesis; modernist poetry; cultural appropriation.

Abstract

The incorporation of classical mythology in British modernist poetry is studied in this research as the works of forgotten British poets like Eliot, Yeats, and H.D. are placed under scrutiny based on how they appropriated ancient myths to tackle issues of their epoch. Analysing "The Waste Land," "Leda and the Swan," and H.D.’s Hellenic poetry, the research shows that modernist poets carved out a cultural critique from the fragments of their experiences shaped by classical modernist references. Eliot's objective correlative, the Celtic-classical synthesis of Yeats, and H.D.'s feminist reclamation portray different styles of mythological argumentation modernist poets followed. Combining intertextuality and mythopoesis, this paper demonstrates the shift of British modernist poets towards classical traditions in abstraction contemporary mythological consciousness, bearing the impacts of modern poetics and literary theory.

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