Overview

Contemporary national heroes are part of the discourse that (re)constructs the nation as reality and myth. The figure of the hero tends to be defined from values such as courage, determination and physical strength, associated with the imaginary of dominant masculinity, and to be represented as transcendent, as opposed to the ordinary human being. In this seminar we will start from specific research carried out in the field of Memory Studies and Gender Studies to problematize the archetypes that define models of heroism and vileness and the representations that involve them. We will observe the discursive, mnemonic and sociopolitical mechanisms that create heroes (and villains) and try to analyze their relationship with other dichotomous pairs: normal and abnormal, victim and perpetrator, courage and cowardice, presence and absence, celebration and stigma.

Keywords: heroism; body; representations

Participants: Ana Cristina Santos, Ana Lúcia Santos, Fernanda Belizário, Inês Rodrigues, Mara Pieri, Mercedes Sanchez Sainz, Miguel Cardina, Paulo Alexandre Pereira, Sílvia Roque and Vasco Martins

Organisers: Research projects CROME - Crossed Memories, Politics of Silence: The Colonial-Liberation Wars in Postcolonial Times, ECHOES - Historicizing Memories of the Colonial War and INTIMATE - Citizenship, Care and Choice: The Micropolitics of Intimacy in Southern Europe, Doctoral Programme Human Rights in Contemporary Societies