Announcements
New Release | Zhuangying Chen and Achim Aurnhammer "Deutsch-chinesische Helden und Anti-Helden"
by Zhuangying Chen and Achim Aurnhammer:
Deutsch-chinesische Helden und Anti-Helden. Strategien der Heroisierung und Deheroisierung in interkultureller Perspektive, Helden - Heroisierungen - Heroismen, Vol. 13
This volume elucidates the changing relationship between heroization and othering in a German-Chinese cultural comparison. Intercultural case studies illustrate which representatives of German culture and history were subjected to a process of heroization or were disparaged as negative anti-heroes in Chinese culture. Vice versa, Chinese figures who adopted a corresponding heroic or antiheroic function within the German-speaking world are also examined. This German-Chinese dialogue, in which cultural scientists from Germany and China participate, is guided by the assumption that processes of heroization and de-heroization represent paradigmatic focal points in the economics of intercultural transfer. The relationship between individual and collective heroism and the meaning of alienness - be it of Chinese or German characteristics - when importing heroes offer new perspectives insofar as these importations prove to be complex and inconsistent.
Further information on the SFB Publications page.
New Release | Barbara Beßlich, Nicolas Detering, Hanna Klessinger, Dieter Martin, Mario Zanucchi "Geistesheld und Heldengeist"
by Barbara Beßlich, Nicolas Detering, Hanna Klessinger, Dieter Martin, Mario Zanucchi:
Geistesheld und Heldengeist, Studien zum Verhältnis von Intellekt und Heroismus, Helden - Heroisierungen - Heroismen, Vol. 14
Heroic spirit and heroic action can be connected in many ways – when intellect and heroism compete, when poet and ruler complement each other or when spirit and act are synthesized to form one heroic character. Drawing on recent concepts of heroism and agency, this volume brings together articles from various disciplines. They shed light on the long history and broad intercultural relevance of the topic in order to determine its potential for future cultural studies.
Further information on the SFB Publications page
New Release | Andreas J. Haller "Mythische Räume der Gesetzlosigkeit in..."
Andreas J. Haller
"Mythische Räume der Gesetzlosigkeit in Erzählungen über Robin Hood, Klaus Störtebeker und Jesse James"
Dieses Buch widmet sich den Erzähltraditionen um drei gesetzlose Helden, die in England, Deutschland und Nordamerika ansässig waren: Robin Hood, Klaus Störtebeker und Jesse James üben eine bis heute anhaltende Faszination aus. Im Mythos des Gesetzlosen finden gesellschaftliche Diskurse um Recht und Gerechtigkeit, um Herrschaft und Widerstand, um Souveränität und Legitimität einen narrativen Ausdruck. Erzählungen, in denen Räuber, Piraten oder Banditen zu Rebellen und schließlich zu Helden avancieren, gestalten die Widersprüche innerhalb rechtlich geordneter Gesellschaften literarisch. Rechtsordnungen besitzen einen sozialen und einen territorialen Aspekt. In der narrativen Darstellung historischer Raumkonstellationen wird die Vorstellung vom Recht als konstituierendem gesellschaftlichem Faktor anschaulich. Die vorliegende Studie eröffnet eine neue Perspektive auf die Bedeutung der heroischen Gesetzlosigkeit als einem Phänomen der sozialen und räumlichen Transgression.
Third Funding Phase for CRC / SFB 948 granted
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) is granting the final third funding phase to CRC / SFB 948 (2020-2024)
The senate committee for CRC (Collaborative Research Centres; SFB) by the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) has granted to extend the funding of CRC / SFB 948 at May 28th.
This provides the CRC / SFB 948 the opportunity to finish the research program at the final last funding period.
More informations :
...about the third funding phase
...the press release of the University of Freiburg
...the press release of the German Research Foundation (DFG) (german only)
New Release | "Handlungsportraet und Herrscherbild"
Die Zuschreibung heroischer Tatkraft und die Mythisierung der Tat praegen die antiken Handlungsportraets Alexanders des Großen bis in die roemische Kaiserzeit.
Dass Herrscher wie Helden inszeniert werden, ist eine gaengige Praxis. Alexander der Große (356-323 v. Chr.) gehoerte zu den revolutionaeren Herrschern der Antike. Sein Image wurde - bis weit in die Neuzeit - umgestaltet und neu modelliert. Beispielhaft dafuer sind seine bildlichen Darstellungen aus der griechisch-roemischen Antike. Sie folgten weniger historischer Faktizitaet als den Vorstellungen ihrer Produzenten und Betrachter. Dabei vermittelten die Handlungsportraets Alexanders das Bild eines durch sein Handeln - und nicht nur durch Qualitaeten oder koenigliches Charisma - ausgezeichneten Herrschers. Vom spaeten 4. Jh. v. Chr. bis in die roemische Kaiserzeit lassen sich dabei Formen der visuellen Heroisierung Alexanders, ja der Mythisierung seiner Taten beobachten. Die Handlungsportraets des Eroberers sind damit Beispielfaelle fuer die Zuschreibung heroischer Tatkraft an einen antiken Herrscher und fuer die Mythisierung seiner Erfolge im Bild.
New Release | "Held - Märtyrer - Usurpator"
The 11th volume in the SFB 948 series "Helden – Heroisierung – Heroismen" (Ergon-Verlag, Würzburg) has been released: "Held - Märtyrer - Usurpator. Der europäische Napoleonismus im Vergleich (1821-1869)", by Benjamin Marquart.
In the beginning there was Napoleon’s death. It marked a fissure for the contemporary discourses on the heroic of the 19th century. In the imagination of european societies, more than ever, the departed hero lived on as the homme du siècle as which he had tried to represent himself in his lifetime. By talking about him contemporaries were simultaneously arguing about the fundamental challenges of a postrevolutionary era in constant motion. This study analyses contemporary discourse about the hero Napoleon in France, Great Britain and Germany between 1821 and 1869. It shows how he, as an exceptional figure that oscillated between the heroic, the sacred and the demonic, functioned as a versatile symbolic figure on the spectrum between politics of legitimacy and politics of history.
Further information on the SFB Publications page and the publishing house's website.
New E-Journal Special Issue 6 (2019)
Special Issue 6 (2019) of the SFB 948 e-journal helden. heroes. héros. has been published. Download it here.
New Release | "Helden müssen sterben"
The 10th volume in the SFB 948 series "Helden – Heroisierung – Heroismen" (Ergon-Verlag, Würzburg) has been released: "Helden müssen sterben. Von Sinn und Fragwürdigkeit des heroischen Todes", edited by Cornelia Brink, Nicole Falkenhayner and Ralf von den Hof.
Further information on the SFB Publications page and the publishing house's website.
New Release | "Girl Warriors"
Svenja Hohenstein, research associate at the Integrated Research Training Group (IGK) in the first phase of funding, has published her dissertation "Girl Warriors. Feminist Revisions of the Hero's Quest in Contemporary Popular Culture”. Further information can be found on the publisher's website.
Quest narratives are as old as Western culture. In stories like The Odyssey, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter, men set out on journeys, fight battles and become heroes. Women traditionally feature in such stories as damsels in need of rescue or as the prizes at the end of heroic quests. These narratives perpetuate predominant gender roles by casting men as active and women as passive. Focusing on stories in which popular teenage heroines—Buffy Summers, Katniss Everdeen and Disney's Princess Merida—embark on daring journeys, this book explores what happens when traditional gender roles and narrative patterns are subverted. The author examines representations of these characters across various media—film, television, novels, posters, merchandise, fan fiction and fan art, and online memes—that model concepts of heroism and girlhood inspired by feminist ideas.
Conference | "Christ as Hero and His Heroic Following. Imitatio Christi in the Early Modern Period"
Early Christianity and Christian antiquity already were characterized by a particular interest not only in the soteriologically motivated interpretation of the life, death and resurrection of the messiah and hero (Isa 9,5) Jesus Christ, but also in heroic discipleship. The emphasis here rests on ethical aspects and a theology of piety as well as on questions regarding the experience of faith. Through all eras of Christianity, this tension-filled dialectics has evoked highly intense readings of the heroism of Christ and inspired the development of conceptions for a heroic imitatio Christi (which by no means limit themselves to a “mysticism of suffering”).
The interdisciplinary conference explores the heroic dimensions of the imitatio Christi and exemplarily analyzes different forms of representing Christian discipleship in heterogenous media as well as intermedial constellations. The primary focus here lies on sources from the early modern period (c. 1450-1750).
The inclusion of the late antique and medieval tradition ensures a tradition-historical perspective on the respective confessionally distinct interpretations of the imitatio Christi in the early modern period as well on transconfessional phenomena of consensus and interconfessional permeabilities, which in this field are particularly numerous.
The conference is jointly organized by the GRK 2008 “Interkonfessionalität in der Frühen Neuzeit” (Hamburg) and the SFB 948 “Heroes – Heroizations – Heroisms” (Freiburg).
Read more about the symposium here.
Conception: Achim Aurnhammer and Johann Anselm Steiger.