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Informationen zum Autor Laurie Maguire is Professor of English at Oxford University and has authored or edited six previous books, including Studying Shakespeare and the popular Where There's a Will There's a Way . She has lectured widely at literary festivals in the U.S. and U.K. Klappentext Helen of Troy: From Homer to Hollywood is a comprehensive examination of the ways in which Helen's story has been told and re-told from the ancient world to the present day. In this wide-ranging literary biography, Laurie Maguire analyzes ongoing debates about Helen's sexual culpability, as seen through the prism of society's evolving attitudes to issues such as beauty and rape. The aesthetic and narrative difficulties that ensue when literature translates myth are also considered, yet through it all, we see how Helen of Troy's contradictory legacy has transcended the ages and endured in literature. Works by Homer, Euripides, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and others are explored, as well as Helen's resurgent popularity in a surprising variety of modern novels, plays, and films. In an engaging and original new work filled with scholarly insights, Helen of Troy: From Homer to Hollywood takes readers on an epic voyage into the literary representations of a woman who has wielded a great influence on Western cultural consciousness for more than three millennia. Zusammenfassung * Investigates issues of sexual ethics, religion, and politics through responses to the story of Helen of Troy throughout the ages * Examines representations of Helen of Troy in literature, art, drama and film * Shows how the Helen myth has relevance to gender debates today. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Illustrations Preface Source Acknowledgments Conventions Introduction: Ab ovo Beginnings Stories and Contexts 1. Narrating Myth Whose Story? Absence Fragments and Narrative Closure The Textual Shudder Myth and Repetition Origins Myth and Meaning Causes (En)Closure 2. Beauty Excess and Deficiency Narrating the Absolute Staging the Absolute Detailing Helen The Beauty Effect Helen's Breasts Androgyny Helen's Scar Relativizng the Absolute Helen and Old Age Beauty: Subjectivity and Objectivity Beauty and Nostalgia 3. Abducting Helen Missing Moments Homer, the Iliad Herodotus, the Histories Chaucer and Narrative Gaps Helen and Cressida The Law's Resolution of Women's Rights (1632) Statute Change in 1597 The Rape of Lucrece (1594) Helen (of Troy) Rape as Revenge 4. Blame Accounts Casting Blame: Helen, Paris, and the Gods Sidestepping Blame: Sympathy in the Iliad Competing Narratives: the Odyssey "Twisting Eulogy/And Censure Both Together" Voicing Helen: Euripides Helen Among the Sophists Agency (1): Joseph of Exeter Agency (2): Middle English Troy Books George Peele, The Tale of Troy (1589) Deifying Helen: John Ogle, The Lamentation of Troy (1594) Mimetic Desire, the Scapegoat, and Blasphemy Naming and Shaming 5. Helen and the Faust Tradition Form and Appearance in the English Faust Book Helen in the English Faust Book Dr Faustus and Language Dr Faustus and Boundaries Goethe (1749-1832) Goethe and Representation Goethe and the Beauty of Language The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships Jo Clifford (1950- ) Clifford's Helen and Gender Politics 6. Parodying Helen Comedy The Novel Caribbean Helen: Derek Walcott, ...
List of contents
List of Illustrations Preface
Source Acknowledgments
Conventions
Introduction: Ab ovo Beginnings
Stories and Contexts
1. Narrating Myth Whose Story?
Absence
Fragments and Narrative
Closure The Textual Shudder
Myth and Repetition
Origins
Myth and Meaning
Causes
(En)Closure
2. Beauty Excess and Deficiency
Narrating the Absolute
Staging the Absolute
Detailing Helen
The Beauty Effect
Helen's Breasts
Androgyny
Helen's Scar
Relativizng the Absolute
Helen and Old Age
Beauty: Subjectivity and Objectivity
Beauty and Nostalgia
3. Abducting Helen Missing Moments
Homer, the
Iliad Herodotus, the
Histories Chaucer and Narrative Gaps
Helen and Cressida
The Law's Resolution of Women's Rights (1632)
Statute Change in 1597
The Rape of Lucrece (1594)
Helen (of Troy)
Rape as Revenge
4. Blame Accounts
Casting Blame: Helen, Paris, and the Gods
Sidestepping Blame: Sympathy in the
Iliad Competing Narratives: the
Odyssey "Twisting Eulogy/And Censure Both Together"
Voicing Helen: Euripides
Helen Among the Sophists
Agency (1): Joseph of Exeter
Agency (2): Middle English Troy Books
George Peele,
The Tale of Troy (1589)
Deifying Helen: John Ogle,
The Lamentation of Troy (1594)
Mimetic Desire, the Scapegoat, and Blasphemy
Naming and Shaming
5. Helen and the Faust Tradition Form and Appearance in the English Faust Book
Helen in the English Faust Book
Dr Faustus and Language
Dr Faustus and Boundaries
Goethe (1749-1832) Goethe and Representation
Goethe and the Beauty of Language
The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships
Jo Clifford (1950- )
Clifford's Helen and Gender Politics
6. Parodying Helen Comedy
The Novel
Caribbean Helen: Derek Walcott,
Omeros (1990)
Notes
References
Index
