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. |
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... imagination for two basic reasons . First of all it is , I believe , in the imagination that we encounter heroes and villains in their most idealised form representing our purest heroic ideals and villainous fears . Secondly , by ...
Mike Alsford. surprising then that the human capacity for the imaginative has often been viewed with suspicion . Imagination is one of those human capacities , such as emotion and intuition , that while formally receiving rather a bad ...
... imagination and beauty ; ' in what we call beautiful , intelligence is at the service of the imagination ... ' 20 The return of imagination During and since the Enlightenment there have been two move- ments that have sought to revive ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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