The Heroic Ideal: Western Archetypes from the Greeks to the Present
ISBN 978-0-7864-3786-3
notes, bibliography, index
236pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2010
Price: $29.95
Description
The word "hero" seems in its present usage, an all-purpose moniker applied to everyone from Medal of Honor recipients to celebrities to comic book characters. This book explores the Western idea of the hero, from its initial use in ancient Greece, where it identified demigods or aristocratic, mortal warriors, through today. Sections examine the concept of the hero as presented in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds. Special attention is paid to particular heroic types, such as warriors, martyrs, athletes, knights, saints, scientists, rebels, secret servicemen, and even anti-heroes. This book also reconstructs how definitions of heroism have been inextricably linked to shifts in Western thinking about religion, social relations, political authority, and ethical conduct.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction 1
PART ONE. MYRMIDONS, MARTYRS, AND MUSCLE MEN: HEROISM IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 5
1. Neither Human nor Divine: The Hemitheoi and Their Cults 9
2. “Of arms and the man I sing”: The Hero as Myrmidon 13
3. “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise”: The Hero as Martyr 24
4. “Creatures of a Day”: The Hero as Athlete 50
PART TWO. SOLDIERS AND SERVANTS OF CHRIST: HEROISM IN THE MIDDLE AGES 65
5. Miles Christi: The Hero as Warrior of Christ 69
6. Imitatio Christi: The Hero as Saint 88
PART THREE. REBELS, ROGUES, AND REPROBATES: HEROISM IN THE MODERN WORLD 105
7. “To boldly go where no one has gone before”: The Hero as Explorer 107
8. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”: The Hero as Romantic Rebel 130
9. Black Angels and New Men: Heroism in a Totalitarian Context 146
10. Rogues, Reprobates, Outcasts, and Oddballs: The Anti-Hero 184
Epilogue 201
Chapter Notes 205
Bibliography 219
Index 227
About the Author
M. Gregory Kendrick is a professor of modern European history and director of the UCLA Freshman Cluster Program at the University of California in Los Angeles.
Edited by Bradford Lee Eden
ISBN 978-0-7864-4814-2
notes, bibliographies, index
215pp. softcover 2010
Price: $35.00
Description
The twentieth century witnessed a dramatic rise in fantasy writing and few works became as popular or have endured as long as the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien. Surprisingly, little critical attention has been paid to the presence of music in his novels. This collection of essays explores the multitude of musical-literary allusions and themes intertwined throughout Tolkien’s body of work. Of particular interest is Tolkien’s scholarly work with medieval music and its presentation and performance practice, as well as the musical influences of his Victorian and Edwardian background. Discographies of Tolkien-influenced music of the 20th and 21st
centuries are included.
Table of Contents
Introduction
BRADFORD LEE EDEN 1
Horns of Dawn: The Tradition of Alliterative Verse in Rohan
JASON FISHER 7
“Inside a Song”: Tolkien’s Phonaesthetics
JOHN R. HOLMES 26
Æ´ fre me strongode longas: Songs of Exile in the Mortal Realms
PETER WILKIN 47
J.R.R. Tolkien: A Fortunate Rhythm
DARIELLE RICHARDS 61
Tolkien’s Unfinished “Lay of Lúthien” and the Middle English Sir Orfeo
DEANNA DELMAR EVANS 75
Strains of Elvish Song and Voices: Victorian Medievalism, Music, and Tolkien
BRADFORD LEE EDEN 85
Dissonance in the Divine Theme: The Issue of Free Will in Tolkien’s Silmarillion
KEITH W. JENSEN 102
“Worthy of a Song”: Memory, Mortality and Music
AMY M. AMENDT-RADUEGE 114
“Tolkien is the Wind and the Way”: The Educational Value of Tolkien-Inspired World Music
AMY H. STURGIS 126
Liquid Tolkien: Music, Tolkien, Middle-earth, and More Music
DAVID BRATMAN 140
Performance Art in a Tunnel: A Musical Sub-Creator in the Tradition of Tolkien
ANTHONY S. BURDGE 171
Contributors 201
Index 205
About the Author
Bradford Lee Eden is Associate University Librarian for Technical Services and Scholarly Communication at
the University of California, Santa Barbara. He lives in Lompoc, California.
Edited by AmiJo Comeford and Tamy Burnett
ISBN 978-0-7864-4661-2
notes, bibliography, index
264pp. softcover 2010
Price: $35.00
Description
The fictionalized Los Angeles of television’s Angel is a world filled with literature--from the all-important Shansu prophecy that predicts Angel’s return to a state of humanity to the ever-present books dominating the characters’ research sessions. This collection brings together essays that engage Angel as a text to be addressed within the wider fields of narrative and literature. It is divided into four distinct parts, each with its own internal governing themes and focus: archetypes, narrative and identity, theory and philosophy, and genre. Each provides opportunities for readers to examine a wide variety of characters, tropes, and literary nuances and influences throughout all five televised seasons of the series and in the current continuation of the series in comic book form.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Los Angeles, City of Story
AMIJO COMEFORD and TAMY BURNETT 1
One : Archetypes
Biting Humor: Harmony, Parody, and the Female Vampire
LORNA JOWETT 17
Doyle as “The Passing Figure” and Nella Larsen’s Passing
ANGEL ANDERSON 30
Pylean Idol: L.A.’s De(con)struction of a Postmodern Bard
JENNIFER HAMILTON 41
Lilah Morgan: Whedon’s Legal Femme Fatale
SHARON SUTHERLAND and SARAH SWAN 54
Two : Narrative & Identity
Fred’s Captivity Narrative: American Contexts for (Re)Writing Community Identity from Mary Rowlandson to Angel
TAMY BURNETT 69
Feminist Abuse Survivor Narratives in Angel and Sarah Daniels’s Beside Herself
ANIKA STAFFORD 85
Numero Cinco, Border Narratives, and Mexican Cultural Performance in Angel
VICTORIA PETTERSEN LANTZ 98
Three : Theory & Philosophy
(Re)Negotiating the Dystopian Dilemma: Huxley, Orwell, and Angel
MARY ELLEN IATROPOULOS 115
Angel vs. the Grand Inquisitor: Joss Whedon Re- imagines Dostoevsky
KATIA MCCLAIN 130
Charles Gunn, Wolfram & Hart, and Baudrillard’s Theory of the Simulacrum
K. SHANNON HOWARD 147
“It’s a play on perspective”: A Reading of Whedon’s Illyria through Sartre’s Nausea
CYNTHEA MASSON 159
Four : Genre
Helping the Helpless: Medieval Romance in Angel
AMIJO COMEFORD 175
Whedon Meets Sophocles: Prophecy and Angel
LAUREL BOWMAN 191
Detective Fiction/Fictionality from Asmodeus to Angel
ALISON JAQUET 206
It (Re-)Started with a Girl: The Creative Interplay Between TV and Comics in Angel: After the Fall
STACEY ABBOTT 221
About the Contributors 233
Bibliography 237
Index 249
About the Author
AmiJo Comeford is an assistant professor of English at Dixie State College of Utah, teaching courses in women’s literature, early British and nineteenth-century American literature, and literary theory. Tamy Burnett is a lecturer in English and women’s and gender studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, teaching courses in American literature, women’s literature, and popular culture.
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