Outlaw Heroes in Myth and History

Seal, Graham

doi:10.7135/upo9780857284211

Cited by 21 publications

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“…Whether these stories were true or not was another matter, but they allowed white bushrangers to become heroic legends (Foster, 2022a). According to folklorist Graham Seal (1996), an outlaw hero must refrain from violence unless it is absolutely necessary. As mentioned above, Ned Kelly claimed to have shot a police officer first in self-defence and then as a mercy killing when the officer was fatally wounded.…”

Section: Bushranging and People Of Colourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, international comparisons to British highwaymen or American cowboys provide important cultural touchpoints for scholars unfamiliar with the Australian landscape, but they can also obscure the uniqueness of the Australian case. While many of these Anglophone bandits are well known characters-what folklorist Graham Seal (1996Seal ( , 2011 terms 'outlaw heroes'-British highwaymen and American cowboys are not symbols of their respective nations.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Bandits, heroes and villains: A view from a settler colony

Foster

2024

History Compass

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Abstract‘Bushrangers’ were late 18th to early 20th‐century bandits who lived in the Australian bush through the proceeds of crime, but today, they are national legends. A particular constellation of factors led to the white male bushranger's status as a national hero in Australia. By charting the development of bushranging historiography alongside bushranging in practice and the bushranging myth, this article will demonstrate the distinctive Australian and settler colonial dimensions of this bandit tradition. In describing how white bushranging men came to national prominence, the piece will also draw attention to those excluded from this legend—women and people of colour, with particular reference to Aboriginal people. The Australian bushranging myth, as it exists today, was not an organic or natural development. It was actively constructed by white settlers, including white settler historians.

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Section: Bushranging and People Of Colourmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bandits, heroes and villains: A view from a settler colony

Foster

2024

History Compass

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“…There is a strong narrative around the way in which residents of the Cabrach "heroically" outwitted the excisemen and pursued their illicit whisky distilling. There is often a strongly emotional and romantic response to past, and essentially small-scale illegality, by which real and mythical outlaw heroes are romanticised, sentimentalised, sanitised (Seal, 2011) or even lionised or idealised, especially if their misdemeanours were not catastrophically criminal.…”

Section: National Environment Advisor Matt Ritchie Saidmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Telling the story of telling the story”: capturing intangible heritage storytelling on the origins of malt whisky in the Cabrach

Reid,

Pirie,

Ironside

2023

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PurposeThis research explored the storytelling (collection, curation and use) in the Cabrach, a remote Scottish glen. This study aims to capture the methodological process of storytelling and curation of heritage knowledge through the lens of the Cabrach's whisky distilling history, a central part of the area's cultural heritage, tangible and intangible. This research was conceptualised as “telling the story of telling the story of the Cabrach”. It was concerned with how the history, heritage, historiography and testimony associated with the parish could be harvested, made sense of and subsequently used.Design/methodology/approachThe study was epistemological in nature and the research was concerned with how heritage knowledge is gathered, curated and understood. It was built around the collection of knowledge through expert testimony from Colin Mackenzie and Alan Winchester, who have extensively researched aspects of life in the Cabrach. This was done using a series of theme-based but free-flowing conversational workshop involving participants and research team. Issues of trust and authority in the research team were crucial. Data were recorded, transcribed and coded. A conceptual model for heritage storytelling in the Cabrach was developed together with a transferable version for other contexts.FindingsThe research was conceived around identifying the stories of the Cabrach and grouping them into cohesive narrative themes focused on the most important aspect of the glen's history (the development of malt whisky distilling). The research showed how all crucial narratives associated with the Cabrach were interconnected with that malt whisky story. It was concerned with identifying broad thematic narratives rather than the specific detailed stories themselves, but also from a methodological perspective how stories around those themes could be collected, curated and used. It presents the outcome of “expert testimony” oral history conversations and presents a conceptual model for the curation of heritage knowledge.Practical implicationsThis paper reports on research which focuses on the confluence of those issues of heritage-led regeneration, intangible cultural heritage, as well as how stories of and from, about and for, a distinctive community in North-East Scotland can be collected, curated and displayed. It presents methodological conceptualisations as well as focused areas of results which can be used to create a strong and inclusive narrative to encapsulate the durable sense of place and support the revival of an economically viable and sustainable community.Social implicationsThis conceptual model offers a framework with universal elements (Place, People, Perception) alongside a strong core narrative of storytelling. That core element may vary but the outer elements remain the same, with people and place being omnipresent and the need to build an emotional or visceral connection with visitors being crucial, beyond “telling stories” which might be regarded as parochial or narrowly focused. The model informs how communities and heritage organisations tell their stories in an authentic and proportionate manner. This can help shape and explain cultures and identities and support visitors' understanding of, and connection with, places they visit and experience.Originality/valueThe originality lies in two principal areas, the exploration of the narratives of a singularly distinctive community – the Cabrach – which plays a disproportionately significant role in the development of malt whisky distilling in Scotland; and also in terms of the methodological approach to the collection and curation of heritage storytelling, drawing not on first-hand accounts as in conventional oral history approaches but through the expert testimony of two historical and ethnographic researchers. The value is demonstrating the creation of a conceptual model which can be transferred to other contexts.

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“…First, he initially came to Italian public attention as a 'bandit'. Since the 1960s an abundant scholarly literature has developed around the notion of the 'noble robber' or 'social bandit' as a folk hero (see Hobsbawm 2000Hobsbawm [1969; Seal 2011), and late nineteenth-century Italians read popular adventure stories featuring such heroes. 1 More recent scholarship, however, finds the notion of the noble robber-social bandit simplistic, and that is the case in regard to Debeb.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conflicting obituaries: the Abyssinian ‘outlaw’ Debeb as treacherous bandit and romantic hero in late nineteenth-century Italian imagination

Bruner

2014

Modern Italy

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In 1886 the Abyssinian chief Debeb became a public figure in Italy as a rapacious colonial bandit. However, over the next five years he acquired additional public personas, even contradictory ones: as a condottiero ally, a ladies’ man, a traitor, a young Abyssinian aristocrat and pretender to an ancient throne, a chivalrous warrior, and a figure representing the frontier and an Africa mysterious and hidden to Europeans. Upon his 1891 death in combat, he was the subject of conflicting Italian press obituaries. For some commentators, Debeb exemplified treacherous and deceitful African character, an explanation for Italy's colonial disappointments and defeats. However, other commentators clothed him in a romanticised mystique and found in him martial and even chivalrous traits to admire and emulate. To this extent his persona blurred the line demarcating the African ‘other’. Although he first appeared to Italians as a bandit, the notion of the bandit as a folk hero (the ‘noble robber’ or ‘social bandit’, Hobsbawm) does not fit his case. A more fruitful approach is to consider his multi-faceted public persona as reflecting the ongoing Italian debate over ‘national character’ (Patriarca). In the figure of Debeb, public debates over colonialism and ‘national character’ merged, with each contributing to the other.

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Outlaw Heroes in Myth and History

Cited by 21 publications

References 0 publications

Bandits, heroes and villains: A view from a settler colony

Bandits, heroes and villains: A view from a settler colony

“Telling the story of telling the story”: capturing intangible heritage storytelling on the origins of malt whisky in the Cabrach

Conflicting obituaries: the Abyssinian ‘outlaw’ Debeb as treacherous bandit and romantic hero in late nineteenth-century Italian imagination

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