Helen of Troy

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.

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