Mysticism and Time Travel

A structural break in the middle of H.D.'s novel The Sword Went Out to Sea fragments both the narrator and the narrative voice. This break arises from the merging of two genres—mysticism and time travel—that coexist but destabilize each other. Although H.D. had been interested in mysticism decades earlier, World War II compels her to revise her thinking about it. In the novel, a traumatized character named Delia experiences an apocalyptic vision that thrusts her into a liminal space, at once in time and out of time, launching her as a time traveler into the historical vignettes that form the second half of the book.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Chapter 2 examines the structural break that occurs in the middle of The Sword Went Out to Sea, and the concomitant fragmentation of narrator and narrative voice. This break can be traced, again, to the merging of two genres—mysticism and time travel—that coexist but destabilize one another. Though H.D. had been interested in mysticism decades earlier, the war compels her to revise her way of thinking about it. In Sword, a traumatized Delia experiences an apocalyptic vision that thrusts her into a liminal space, at once in time and out of time, and launches her as time traveller into the historical vignettes that comprise the second half of the novel.