Heroes and VillainsHercules, Jesus, James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Gandalf, Frodo, Harry Potter, Buffy Summers, Spiderman, Batman, Captain Kirk, Dr. Who, Darth Vader, Sauron, Voldemort, Lex Luthor, Dr. Doom, the Daleks, the Borg. Almost anybody living in the developed West would be able to group these individuals into two camps: the heroes and the villains. However, what criteria they may use to do this is less clear. Mike Alsford introduces us to a range of heroic and villainous archetypes on a journey through film, television, comic books, and literature. On the way, he addresses questions such as: What is a true hero? What is a true villain? Have we misunderstood these terms? What kind of societal values do our mythical heroes and villains represent? In trying to understand the extremes of hero and villain we are made more aware of our own ethical standards and given a space in which to explore contemporary concerns over notions of right and wrong, good and bad. |
From inside the book
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... characters , Lord Asriel , requires the release of a large amount of energy in order to open a portal to another ... character of Mr Hyde from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a good example of ...
... character is as often as not cast in the role of an enlightening character , one who possesses either a specific body of information or general insight into the nature of the world which is used in some way to liberate others from ...
... character that made him what he is , the last half a dozen panels of the graphic novel , depicting the Batman and the Joker laughing maniacally together over a joke , serves to reinforce the notion of similarity between the two of them ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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