Violence and heroism

Abstract: In many of its facets, the phenomenon of violence is present in numerous hero narratives: the trial in battle and war for instance can constitute the point of departure for heroization processes; protecting the defenceless against the violence of others can be told in concepts and narratives of heroism; using one’s own body when faced with the threat of expected violence can be rewarded with hero status. Violence, understood as the wilful damaging of the body of another against that individual’s will, is admittedly not a constitutive condition for heroization processes, but it often accompanies them. The willingness to deliberately subject oneself to the violence of others, to endure it passively or to confront it actively is equally a prominent reason for construction processes of the heroic. There is no inherent ontological bond between violence and heroism; however, owing to specific similarities – for instance with regard to their transgressive element, their affective impact, their ambiguous relationship to order and their focus on an identifiable deed – they can be understood as phenomena that are linked to each other through numerous theoretical interfaces. Two central lines of thought proceed from this possible connection between violence and heroism: first, both violence and the heroic call for their legitimation and often find it in references to each other. The heroic thus joins the concepts of ‘violence’ and ‘legitimacy’ and forms with them a tense web of interrelation in which questions as to the reciprocal dependence of the phenomena should be asked. Second, attention can be focused on those involved in violence – perpetrator, victim and audience – and the questions addressed: which agents are heroized; who is doing the heroizing; for which conduct is heroizing happening and which agents can be heroized at all? This also takes into account the observation that heroization processes and experiences of violence are to be understood as historically and culturally contingent phenomena and that a vast number of violent and heroic situations are thus conceivable

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Edition: Version 1.0, published 8 September 2022
• Language: Englisch

Classification and Topics

• Keyword: Gewalt ; Gewaltdarstellung ; Gewalttätigkeit ; Gewaltverzicht ; Heroisierung ; Held ; Heroismus ; Kollektives Gedächtnis ; Krieg ; Legitimität ; Männlichkeit ; Medienkultur ; Sozialordnung

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Freiburg
• (who): Universität
• (when): 2022
• Creator: Brink, Cornelia ; Gölz, Olmo
• Contributor: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Sonderforschungsbereich 948 "Helden - Heroisierungen - Heroismen"

Further information

• DOI: 10.6094/heroicum/gewe1.0.20220908
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-2295754
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 25.03.2025, 1:58 PM CET