The Epic Hero

Nagy, Gregory

doi:10.1002/9780470996614.ch7

Cited by 30 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Heroic narratives have been widely studied in English-speaking contexts through the study of the epic (Carlyle, 1841; Henderson, 1964; Nagy, 2006) and superhero comics (Chambliss, 2012; DuBose, 2007; Gavaler, 2017), including recent proposals on superheroines (Cocca, 2016; Coogan, 2013, 2018a; McCausland, 2017). While the study of superhero narratives has explored urban identity and the conflicts arising with urbanization, rural representations have been neglected.…”

Section: Disordering Heroes Through Street Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subverting superhero and meiga imaginaries in street art narrative Fenómenas do rural

Carbajal-Carrera

2021

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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Heroic narratives are often biased towards a conceptualization of the rural/urban difference that positions rural identities at the margins. In particular, superhero stories have traditionally offered a vision of heroism assumed to be male, urban and young. How can post-rural contexts shaped by migration contest these narrative patterns? This article examines the street narrative of Fenómenas do rural, which recognizes older female rural identities and casts them as superheroines. Through a multimodal discourse analysis, I examine its contestation of heroic patterns, its recognition of older female rural identities and its creation of affiliation opportunities for the Galician community. I argue that this narrative stands as a reflection of the rurban (rural + urban) and the glocal (global + local) elements that subverts pre-existing canons in the superhero and the meiga (‘witch’) mythology imaginaries.

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Section: Disordering Heroes Through Street Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subverting superhero and meiga imaginaries in street art narrative Fenómenas do rural

Carbajal-Carrera

2021

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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“…Suffering is also a common component of heroic life. Odysseus, who gets the happiest ending of any Greek hero, still earns himself the epithet “long-suffering.” The Illiad , as described by the classicist Gregory Nagy (2006), is “the story of a hero’s pain.” Like the Christ, Herakles, another savior hero, suffers utter agony before he dies. Heroes are victims as well as protectors.…”

Section: Heroes As Victims Heroes As Athletesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achilles and the Astronaut: What Heroism Humanities Can Teach Heroism Science

Curry

2017

Journal of Humanistic Psychology

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In its ambition to become a "transdisciplinary" field of study, heroism science should leverage the expertise of the "heroism humanities." This article uses humanistic knowledge to address one of the thorniest issues in the field: Who counts as a hero? After summarizing the "subjective" versus "objective" approach to defining heroism, I suggest the problem exists because we conflate two distinct conceptual categories: "Heroes," or the ascription of heroic status to persons and "heroism," or the ascription of heroic status to behavior. "Hero," with deep roots in classical antiquity, generates a far more diverse web of associations than "heroism," a modern construction. Using four examples from a recent news cycle of persons deemed "heroes" (a dictator, an astronaut, a victim of abuse, and an athlete), I demonstrate that a deeper appreciation of the Greek heroic tradition reveals that contemporary ascription of "hero" status is often a continuation, rather than a "diminution" of the word's historic meanings. Finally, I suggest that heroism science shift its focus from the study of heroic actors as natural objects to the study of how heroes function, discursively and symbolically, within their communities.

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“…For what are we dealing with here: with borrowings by one literature from the other or with narrative universals? In other words, what kind of comparison are we making: a historical one, when comparanda are compared that are related to each other or are the result of cultural contact, or a typological one, when comparanda are compared that are not related to each other or the result of cultural contact? 9 It is clear that Burkert and West are making a historical comparison. The Greeks were influenced by Near Eastern literature, with Greek poets somehow translating or paraphrasing Near Eastern written literary texts.…”

Section: Homer and The Biblementioning

confidence: 99%

After Auerbach: Ancient Greek Literature as a Test Case of European Literary Historiography

Jong¹

2014

European Review

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In the first chapter of his celebratedMimesis(1946) Auerbach discussed a specimen of Ancient Greek literature (Homer) both as the starting point of a European literary history of realism and as a comparandum to biblical storytelling. Both lines of approach have recently been given new impetuses. On the one hand there is Martin West'sThe East Face of Helicon,1which does not merely compare early Greek literature and Near Eastern literature but describes the former as largely a product of the latter. On the other hand there is the series Studies in ancient Greek narrative, edited by Irene J.F. de Jong, which describes the early development of – what will become quintessential – European storytelling devices in Ancient Greek literature. Both scholarly projects, independently, have put the same urgent question on the agenda: how exactly are we to evaluate resemblances between ancient Greek literature and contemporary Near Eastern literature and later European literature. Can we speak of some form of historical connection, i.e. one literature taking over devices and motifs from another literature, or should we rather think in terms of typological resemblances, i.e. of the same narrative universals being employed at different places and at different times? Or is there some middle way to be found in the recent cognitive turn of comparative literature? Despite the methodological problems involved, investigating the history of European literature is an extremely rewarding task. The project of Europe as an economical and political unity has at the moment reached a critical phase. Literary scholars can contribute to this issue by showing the cultural unity of Europe, a mission that is just as urgent as it was in 1946, when Auerbach published hisMimesis.

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The Epic Hero

Cited by 30 publications

References 9 publications

Subverting superhero and meiga imaginaries in street art narrative Fenómenas do rural

Subverting superhero and meiga imaginaries in street art narrative Fenómenas do rural

Achilles and the Astronaut: What Heroism Humanities Can Teach Heroism Science

After Auerbach: Ancient Greek Literature as a Test Case of European Literary Historiography

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