Helen of Troy; from Homer to Hollywood.

9781405126359

Helen of Troy; from Homer to Hollywood.

Maguire, Laurie E.

Blackwell Publishing

2009

258 pages

$35.00

Paperback

PN57

Maguire (English, U. of Oxford) examines the literary history of the face that launched a thousand ships, from the Iliad to plays and novels published in 2006. Her arrangement is topical rather than chronological however, looking in turn at narrating myth, beauty, abducting Helen, blame, the Faust tradition, and parodying Helen. Among specific topics are fragments and narrative, staging absolute beauty, Helen's scar, Chaucer and the narrative gaps, Helen among the Sophists, form and appearance in the English Faust book, Jo Cliford's Helen, and the Caribbean Helen in Derek Walcott's 1990 Omeros.

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