Updating the tragic hero epos

Ispas, Sabina (2002) Updating the tragic hero epos. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 47 (1-2). pp. 217-222. ISSN 1216-9803

Preview

Text aethn.47.2002.1-2.22.pdf Download (66kB) | Preview

Abstract

The epical hero is a daring fighter, and very often, behaving as a nonconformist, as he used to break the rules… He is not just an adventurer, but a personality assuming the responsibility of searching life's significance. Novac's Gruia, the hero of a South-East European ballad cycle willingly enters the space where the wild girl lives to fight her and to obtain her as a wife. He cuts the line of the enemies provoking them to fight, in order to demonstrate for the other and for himself that he can challenge his capability. Another hero provokes Frost as God's power and loses his entire army in that competition with a non-human authority. Apart from the hero in the fairy tales, the hero in songs has no miraculous helpers. He is a fighter but not an adventurer. He is a searcher who wants to test the norm by himself. On that coordinates the modern hero of the audio-visual productions related with a new psychological attitude tries to find the reason of his actions but more like an individual who has to be persuaded that the social rules are correct. Frequently the end is dramatic. Breaking the traditional law and the link with the group he is alone from the very beginning and at a disadvantage. When he loses he frequently dies as a tragic hero.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item