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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... postmodern where relativity and subjectivity are prioritised over the modernist celebration of absolutism and objectivity we still wrinkle up our noses , narrow our eyes and look generally put out when things or people ' don't make ...
... Postmodernism Both of these - in their own unique ways – have sought to argue for the importance of imagination as a ... modern society was dominated , there was goodness to be discovered in the human heart.21 This message and indeed the ...
... Postmodernism further endorses the idea that human existence is not susceptible to precise definition . Many postmoderns go so far as to argue that all we ever have are image and imagination , that there is no one truth , no absolute ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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