The difficulty of analyzing heroic figures is somewhere between that of a Herculean labor and a Sisyphean task. And it is not any easier to get a grasp of antiheroes. Currently there are no extensive studies on the phenomenon ‘antihero,’ its genealogy or the extent of its usage, which is why we are entering rather uncharted territory with this edition of
helden. heroes. héros. In this unchartered territory many questions have been raised: Do antiheroes always need heroes as opponents? In being called an antihero, is it merely a matter of negating the heroic? Are they like heroes in that they disturb order transgressing norms and behaving competitively? Are they figures that are primarily understood and formed through their reception, i.e. through their narrative and medial construction and promulgation? Do they require a following or even a community of admirers? Where are those elements constitutive for heroes modified and where do specifically antiheroic habitus patterns develop?
