[Commlist] cfp - II International H/Story Seminar - Heroism in Historical Fiction

Call for Papers
II International H/Story Seminar
Heroism in Historical Fiction
February 21, 2025
online


University of Silesia in Katowice
Institute of Literary Studies
H/Story Research Group


Heroism as an idea dates back to the very dawn of stories portraying 
ancient heroes and heroines as if they were gods or god-like. Despite 
being a much later invention, historical fiction (very broadly defined) 
has been consistently preoccupied with divine-like heroes and heroines. 
And, whether these are works authored by the early or the latter 
representatives of the genre, they abound in gladiators (/The Students 
of Spartacus/,/Gladiator/) or warriors (/Count Belisarius/, /Troy/) that 
both draw on the Antique heroism patterns and rework them from the 
perspective of later trends, ideas, and contexts.

More recent incarnations of heroism – and hence ones that could be found 
employed in historical fiction even more readily – include Carlyle’s 
idea of the great man as the key agent making history, Campbell’s 
journeying hero, and the idea of heroic imagination proposed by Zimbardo 
and Franco that debunks the “heroic elect” myth and makes heroism 
“something that seems in the range of possibilities for every person, 
perhaps inspiring more of us to answer that call.” Of course, historical 
fiction does not satisfy itself by merely translating the great man 
theory into fictionalised history-makers. On the contrary, texts, films, 
television series and games of this type seem to have reworked the 
theory in every possible way: a few of many notable examples might 
include Leo Tolstoy’s /War and Peace,/ which is critical of the great 
man theory; Jędrzej Napiecek’s /The King Who Run Away/ in which this is 
a dwarf servant of Henri de Valois who engineers the king’s key 
decisions; and the renowned /Kingdom of Heaven/, which shows the dark 
sides of great men and women.Similarly, Campbell’s hero journey has also 
been reworked in historical fiction (/Braveheart/, /The Northman/). And 
one might wonder whether the accretion of alternatives to Campbell’s 
idea is still cognitively productive (the heroine journey in the BBC’s 
series /Merlin/ with the character of Morgana) or whether it has already 
diluted the idea so much so that it has become meaningless (for 
instance, with its insistence on chance, the comic take on history 
presented in /The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and 
Disappeared/ might push one to wonder whether heroism is anything but a 
stroke of luck).

Circulating in the works of historical fiction (Diana Gabaldon’s Claire 
and Jamie Frazer, /Lady Macbeth, The Last Duel/) as well as in academic 
texts (Weber’s charismatic authority, Tatar’s /The Heroine with 1001 
Faces/, hesitant/reluctant hero), these and many other perspectives on 
heroism have further generated many variants of heroes and heroines, and 
thus have also contributed to the idea of hero becoming a much more 
democratic/inclusive one. Accordingly, one may also wonder about the 
inspirations circling back and forth between various theoretical 
heroisms and fictional representations of the idea.

But it is not only /who/ is heroic that has changed in historical 
fiction and is worth investigating; this is also the construction of 
/the stories themselves /that seems to have shifted from those in which 
the hero or heroine shapes history to include also those in which 
history shapes them as well (/Unbroken/,/Cleopatra, The Last Samurai/). 
Moreover, historical fiction heroes and heroines seem also to have grown 
beyond being history makers and causes of social transformation to be 
also conceptualised as “expressions of historically specific conflicts” 
(/Pachinko, Medieval/) (or, more generally, of social conditions), 
narrative phenomena, expressions of collective ego/unconscious, 
“product[s] of constructive imagination” (Thomas and Katherine in the 
/Kingmaker/ series), etc. Similarly, heroic acts and their motivations 
have also been expanded on in historical fiction. First and foremost, 
heroic acts “are [no] longer the exclusive province of larger-than-life 
figures. Rather, they [are] the deeds of ordinary people” (the Dutton 
family members in /1883/ and in /1923/). Secondly, browsing through 
historical fictions, one might realise that the motivations of heroes 
and heroines have grown very complex: they are often changeable – 
obligation- principle-, altruism-, or pity-derived (Shūsaku Endō’s/The 
Samurai/; Pam Jenoff’s /The Woman with the Blue Star/) – as well as both 
intrinsic (personal traits, feeling such as altruism, self-denial, 
other-directed feelings) and extrinsic (including those pertaining to 
the situations of social pre-conditioning by human organisation 
structures, such as police service, emotional cultures, cultural 
resources and networks) (/The London House/ by Katherine Reay).

Heroism has also been reworked at much more abstract levels, for 
instance, these of discourse (How and under what conditions historical 
discourse on heroism is created? Is heroism a process or a state? What 
is the cognitive productivity of differentiating between various degrees 
of heroism? How is heroism related to the “economy of respect, esteem,” 
and prestige distribution?) or ideas (charisma, risk, social types, 
congratulatory culture, the decline of the idea of heroism/post-heroic 
age); and it might be cognitively productive to observe how historical 
fiction responds to these changes.

With all this and much more in mind, the /H/Story Research Group/ 
invites scholars working in various disciplines and fields of study to 
participate in the /II International H/Story Seminar/, /Heroism in 
Historical Fiction/. Specific topics may address, but are not limited to:

·Hero types and their developments (social hero, narcissist hero, animal 
hero, war hero, underdog, whistle-blower, post-heroic hero, 
collaborative heroism)

·What makes a hero? (identity formation, psychological traits, tropes, 
skills, knowledge, quests, risks, sacrifices, choice, agency)

·Narratives of the hero’s journey and their developments (challenges, 
alternatives, cognitive productivity in the post-heroic age)

·The hero versus the society (the hero in the eye of the beholder, the 
hero contract, heroism as a product)

·Social labour of heroic figures (physical and mental risk versus 
transformation and inspiration)

·Values informing heroism (agency, integrity, hope, responsibility, 
altruism)

·Heroic acts and their motivations (heroes born out of trauma, 
self-fulfilment, self-sacrifice/ heroic suicide, mad heroism, moral 
tickle, positive rumination)

·Non-mainstream heroisms, gendered and post-gender heroism, animal heroism

·Fantasises and the dark side of heroism and their social consequences

·Memory of and nostalgia for heroism, processes of heroinisation of 
individuals and groups

·Heroism and war, nationalism, totalitarianism

·Uses and abuses of heroism

·Heroism at the service of ideologies, religions, social groups, and affects

·Philosophical, political, social, and psychological takes on heroism

We are delighted to announce that the seminar’s keynote addresses will 
be presented by Prof. Michael Joseph (Rutgers University), the 
editor-in-chief of /The Robert Graves Review/ and the author of “Myth of 
the Golden Age: Journey Tales in African Children’s Literature” and /The 
Marvelous Real in a Land of Dreams/.

The seminar is free of charge and takes place online. We welcome 
scholars from various academic fields to submit their proposals by 15 
December 2024. Abstracts of no longer than 300 words in English and 
accompanying short biographical notes should be emailed to 
(hstory.seminar /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(hstory.seminar /at/ gmail.com)>. 
Notifications of acceptance will be sent out on an ongoing basis.

Find us at 
https://hstory.us.edu.pl/events/ii-international-h-story-seminar/ 
<https://hstory.us.edu.pl/events/ii-international-h-story-seminar/> and 
https://www.facebook.com/Hstory-437485846310918/ 
<https://www.facebook.com/Hstory-437485846310918/>.

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