![]() In addition to the ‘Faust’ legend in its various renditions, Helen’s mysterious presence is also discovered in Victorian and Modernist fiction, as well as in contemporary poetry – above all Derek Walcott’s epic Omeros – in contemporary fiction, including graphic novels, and in film. Shakespeare, for instance, linked her closely to the morally wavering Cressida. Yet, as Professor Maguire shows in the excellent chapter entitled Blame, Helen has often been viewed as culpable even in her passivity. ![]() And though she was celebrated for having triggered major military activity – her face launching those ‘thousand ships’, a phrase interestingly re-spun in modern times – she is herself essentially passive, a victim of rape and/or abduction. For the majority of writers, whether historical or literary, her appearance is essentially a blank, to be filled in – or not – by the imagination of aftercomers. ![]() Though she was held to be the most beautiful woman of antiquity, there is no agreement about the specific details of Helen’s beauty. Praise for Helen of Troy In her witty, scholarly and wide-ranging study Laurie Maguire explores the deep contradictions inherent in the myth of Helen of Troy. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |