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A selection of links to programmes, talks and articles all about heroes.

Article | “The Feminine Heroic”, The Paris Review
The Paris Review has published an article by Megan Mayhew Bergman on the portrayal of the feminine heroic. She discusses how women, often excluded from adventure narratives, carve out their own heroic space.

This web special from the Mercator Institute for China Studies analyses heroes and role models in China, as well as conceptions of historical figures, celebrities, everyday heroes and antiheroes. Some of the data was gathered from questionnaires asking Chinese school children “Who are your heroes and role models?”

 

The November 23, 2014 episode of SWR2 Wissen: Aula investigates whether heroes are compatible with democracy. There have never been as many heroes as there are today, and some researchers have begun talking about a ‘democratization’ of heroism. This programme explores whether this is really happening. A transcript of the broadcast is also available (in German).

 
The October 22, 2014 episode of Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s Zeitfragen, called “Post-Heroism: When Heroes Are No Longer Needed”, talks about the twilight of heroism, questioning why heroic values are no longer fashionable in Western societies. What happens if heroes only resemble the likes of Superman or Harry Potter?

 

Radio Programme | “No More Heroes”, BBC Radio 4
On September 6, 2014, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an episode of Archive on 4 entitled “No More Heroes”. Presenter Angie Hobbs examines the hero to find out what the concept means to us today and why we are so drawn to heroes, and asks if we are in danger of devaluing the term.

E-Journal | Behemoth – A Journal on Civilisation
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Bröckling, head of Project B7 “The Hero as Disturbing Element: The Sociology of Exceptionality”, serves as co-editor of the e-journal Behemoth – A Journal on Civilisation, along with other colleagues from the universities of Freiburg and Leipzig. The issue “Das Andere der Ordnung” is particularly relevant to the SFB 948’s research topics.

Lecture Series | “Configurations et reconfigurations de l'héroïsme”
From 2013 to 2017, the Centre d'études des littératures d'Ancien Régime (CELAR) at the University of Strasbourg presented a lecture series entitled “Configurations et reconfigurations de l'héroïsme, du Moyen Âge à la Révolution française” (Configurations and Reconfigurations of Heroism from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution).

Lecture Series | “The Heroic and the Anti-Heroic in Classical Greek Civilization”
The Harvard Extension School has made the video lectures of its open learning course “The Hero in Ancient Greek Civilization” freely available online. The professor is Gregory Nagy (Harvard University, Department of the Classics).