Colloquium, Department of Classical Studies
Oct 10, 2024 at 4:45pm - 6:15pm
402 Cohen Hall, 249 South 36th St.
Euripides’ Helen dramatizes the trauma of survival after an Athenian military disaster that killed many soldiers abroad (the Sicilian Disaster). Far from being a simple melodrama of adventure and escape, the novel plot of Helen casts its protagonists, and particularly Helen, as survivors of losses that continue to haunt them, as well as of virulent stories that challenge their sense of their own memory and identity. Engaging with trauma theory, this talk traces this crisis of survival through formal tropes such as repetition, doubled scenes, and performances that re-enact past trauma. Helen shows how these repetitions and returns can function as ways of working through past trauma by changing the survivor’s relationship to their feelings of loss and to their community.
*4:15-4:45 pm: Coffee and cookies in Cohen Hall 2nd Floor Lounge. All are welcome.