Professor of English Wendy Furman-Adams presented the opening keynote speech for The Afterlives of Eve, a conference that dealt with Eve in art, literature, theology, Islamic Studies, quantitative biology- from Genesis to Ursula Le Guinn and current popular film. The conference was held earlier this fall at Newcastle University and Durham University in the United Kingdom.
Furman-Adams’ presentation "Milton's Eve and the Artist's Gaze," explored the evolving ways Eve—particularly Milton's Eve—has been represented by artists at various times in history. To illustrate her presentation, Furman-Adams included 45 images of Eve made between 1428 (including the 1688 first illustrated edition of Paradise Lost) and 2013.
When it comes to Milton and the cross-section between literature and the visual arts, no one is more knowledgeable than Furman-Adams. The presentation is part of a much longer history of a Milton illustration book project called Visualizing Paradise Lost: Artists as Interpreters. Furman-Adams has published more than 30 essays on some of the 150 artists who have illustrated the poem, and given three previous invited lectures, as well as countless conference papers, on the subject.
Among the conference attendees was Whittier College alumna Grace Megumi Chou ‘13, who is working on her Ph.D. at Durham University in England.
In addition to Milton, Furman-Adams specializes in non-dramatic literature of the English Renaissance, Italian Renaissance Art, Medieval Literature, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature and has been inspiring and mentoring Whittier College students since 1981.
