Theme:
The topicality of heroism can be attributed to new societal and cultural relevance ascribed to the hero figure in 21st-century culture, especially in the wake of the post-9/11 wars. Heroes are figures through which societies (or parts of societies) negotiate their values and moral standards. Accordingly, hero figures can be used to trace processes of social reorientation. As much as social and ideological constructs, hero figures are products of the media and genres in which they appear. While (super-)heroism in film, comics and other fora of popular culture have received some critical attention in recent years, literature has been given short shrift. Though the hero-figure is perhaps less prominent in contemporary ‘high-brow’ writing, literature has long been the medium in which the hero was negotiated and inspected for wider audiences. There is no current major study of the heroic in literature and especially no volume that attempts a survey of the most important stages in literary exploration of the heroic. Jenni Calder’s study Heroes: From Byron to Guevara dates from the 1970s and needs updating. In particular, concepts of the hero and the heroic need to be put in relation to recent discussions of their cultural functions.
Conjuncture of texts, histories, approaches:
The proposed volume will provide an extensive introduction by the editors which outlines characteristics of the current cultural interest in the heroic. It will also map out the paradigms of the heroic as presented in literature up to the late eighteenth century. A series of articles by different contributors will follow this theoretical introduction and historical outline. Each of these articles will present an overview of a specific period in the ‘literary heroic’ since the late eighteenth century and illustrate general trends with one or two case studies of representative texts. Both popular and ‘highcultural’ products will be considered. Guiding questions for exploration should be: What characterizes the hero/heroine/heroic in literary renderings of the period? Which aspects of the heroic appear uncontroversial, which are presented as problematic? Where are differences/similarities to current conceptions and realisations of the heroic? How can these earlier examples illuminate the current discussions? Articles should also include a consideration of gender issues.
Suggested periods/topics (in chronological order):
Romantic heroes and heroism
Gothic heroes, the heroic in sensation fiction
the imperial heroic
domestic heroism
the heroic in melodrama
war heroes
the troubled modern hero
working-class and everyday-heroes
the heroic in thriller and detective fiction
heroes and the war against terror
the heroic in contemporary cult fiction
We invite proposals of about 200 words covering one of the above periods/topic areas. Proposals for alternative topics within the general framework of the book’s focus will also be considered.
Please send your proposal to
sekretariat.korte@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de
by 31st October 2014. Articles will be due in May 2015.