Mourning to the Limit: Forgiveness in H.D.’s The Gift

Abstract

War is war. Whether the World Wars or the War on Terrorism, war is ugly and violent, and results in unspeakable human suffering, collective and individual. Responses to the loss and destruction of war are inevitably complex, psychically and politically, and include a range of emotions: anger, hatred, resentment, sadness, and perhaps even apathy or resignation. From Freud’s first attempt to map out the psychic response to loss in “Mourning and Melancholia” to Walter Benjamin’s historical materialist approach, to Judith Butler’s work on melancholia and vulnerability, the discourse on mourning is vast.¹ In the most positive sense, mourning can be a productive practice involving witness, memory, and history, bringing meaning to issues of ethics and identity.

Shooting-star, shooting-star forgive us.

—H.D.