CEH30010

Heroes have always transcended the literary and cultural heroic forms in which they first appeared, notably epic. Attending to heroes (and anti-heroes) and later retellings of heroic stories, reveals the social, political and cultural values of their particular historical time and place – as well as historical continuities and discontinuities of identity, memory, nationhood, and much more.
This module studies the concepts of heroes, heroism and heroic values through the different but often intersecting fields of Classics, English and History. From epic poetry to the sports field, heroes have always compelled attention, evoked passion, and modelled power. Heroic narratives and values shape events, institutions, whole cultures, although not unproblematically (as the ‘Great Man’ model of history has shown). Perhaps more revealing are constructions of female heroes, particularly of those hitherto entangled in the heroic stories of men (Eve, for example, or Briseis). Exploring the intersectionality, influence and cultural forms of heroic identity, male and female, as well as their political uses, is a key aim of this module.
By examining a variety of genres and historical moments of constructing or remembering the hero, from Homeric times to the present day, we ask, why does the hero (still) matter? What are the politics of heroes and heroism? What needs are served by the notion of the heroic past, and who deploys them? How has the notion of the heroic shaped human experience and articulations of that experience across time, particularly at times of violence and conflict?