On Tuesday, October 21 at 7:30 PM in the Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre, our own Ruby Blondell will be delivering a lecture entitled "'Advertised for 2700 Years and Now You Get Her!' - Helen of Troy on the Silver Screen" as part of the Performing Arts Lecture Series. For information on this lecture and to obtain tickets ($10, free for UW students), and on the series in general, please click here.
Professor Blondell describes the lecture thus: "In an era that believes beauty is in the eye of the beholder, how can one possibly cast any individual performer as the most beautiful woman in the world? This talk explores how harnessing the glamour of stardom is the most persuasive means of capturing Helen of Troy’s mythical celebrity on screen." The lecture is part of her continuing work on the figure of Helen, ancient perspectives on whom she explored in her very well-received book Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation (Oxford 2013). Her next project explores Helen in modern cinema and culture.