Loading...
Publication
Master of Doom. The Hero in the Classical Epics, Tolkien, and Zelensky
| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.95 MB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Abstract(s)
Heroes never die! They are kept alive through times by tales forged from the
conflict of fate and character. Wherein their actions are upheld by people not due to their
perfection but as examples of virtuous acts to follow and as warnings of those ill acts to
avoid.
It is the aim of this dissertation to look at the archetype of the hero in three
different spheres: Classical Epic; John R. R. Tolkien’s fiction; and modern rhetoric,
namely in Volodymyr Zelensky’s speeches on the war in Ukraine, in order to analyse the
evolution of the concept of heroism and its validity within modern culture.
A more focussed view will be given to the role of fate, which can fall anywhere
along a spectrum between determinism and free will, in order to define if the main
features of a hero – whether he is a mythological, a literary, or a political character – are
identical or not. To this end, we will consider the main heroic characters of Classical
Epics (Achilles, Hektor, Aeneas, and Turnus), the heroes in two books by Tolkien The
Silmarillion, and The Children of Húrin), and the notion of heroism in Zelensky’s
speeches on war between February and March 2022. We expect to show how some of
these characters’ features constitute what we still expect of the conduct of some high
standing individuals. Nevertheless, as we can see, for instance in the “Roman” Aeneas,
the hero has at times moments of weakness and despair. This reminds us that the
perception of heroism is more complex than it may seem and subject to cultural and moral
contexts.
Description
Keywords
Heroism Fate Classical epic heroes Tolkien’s heroes Zelensky Cultural identity Cultural Management . Faculdade de Artes e Humanidades