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helden. heroes. héros. E-Journal zu Kulturen des Heroischen

ISSN 2198-4662

helden. heroes. héros. E-Journal on Cultures of the Heroic

Executive Editors: Ulrich Bröckling, Barbara Korte, Ulrike Zimmermann

Heroes and heroines are exceptional because they achieve the extraordinary, they transgress the bounds of what is normal, and they follow their own rules. Simultaneously, they are problematic figures who represent an inclination towards violence and sacrifice, and who break social rules. Heroes serve the communities of their admirers as idealized projections who offer models for coping with unfeasible norm systems. Processes of heroization provide insights into collective self-interpretations and value spectrums. Which figures are heroized and which forms their veneration takes indicate, not least of all, the demands that a society places upon its members. Currently, diagnoses of a “post-heroic age” are competing with a new trend of the heroic in which persisting traditions are opposing popular cultural reinterpretations, and appellative invocations are opposing sceptical perspectives that see heroes as taboo.

From a cross-cultural and comparative perspective, the e-journal helden. heroes. héros addresses the relationship between the exceptionality of heroic figures and the social orders that they help to stabilize as well as question. The e-journal is published by the Collaborative Research Centre 948 “Heroes – Heroizations – Heroisms”, a project funded by the German Research Foundation at the University of Freiburg.

Two issues are released annually as open access publications. Submissions are welcome at any time and will be selected on the basis of a peer review process. For further information, please visit our website at

www.helden-heroes-heros.de


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