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Full Description
The rhetoric of heroism pervades politics. Political leaders invoke their own heroic credentials, soldiers are celebrated at sporting events, ordinary citizens become state symbols (or symbols of opposition), and high profile celebrities embody a glamorized, humanitarian heroism.
Using analytical tools drawn from international relations, gender studies, war studies, history, and comparative politics, this book examines the cultural and political phenomenon of heroism and its relationship to the process of creating, sustaining and challenging political communities. Arguing that heroism is socially constructed and relational, the contributors demonstrate that heroes and heroic narratives always serve particular interests in the ways that they create and uphold certain images of states and other political communities.
Studying the heroes that have been sanctioned by a community tells us important things about that community, including how it sees itself, its values and its pressing needs at a particular moment. Conversely, understanding those who are presented in opposition to heroes (victims, demonized opponents), or who become the heroes of resistance movements, can also tell us a great deal about the politics of a state or a regime. Heroes are at once the institutionalization of political power, and yet amorphous--one can go from being a hero to a villain in short order.
This book will appeal to scholars and students working on topics related to international relations, gender, security and war studies, comparative politics, state building, and political communities.
Contents
Introduction 1. Heroism and the construction of political community 2. Medals and American heroic military masculinity after 9/11 3. Everyday heroics: motivating masculine protection in the private security industry 4. Rousseau, the general will, and heroism in drag: Waltz with Bashir as excessive Israeli heroism 5. Excursions into marginality: digitalised memories of militarised masculinity in Rhodesian understandings of self 6. Unsung heroism?: showbusiness and social action in Britain's military wives choir(s) 7. Bringing hyper-empowered individuals back into global affairs: the contested terrain between celebrity, hero and anti-hero status 8. Havel and Mandela: leadership and legitimacy at home and abroad 9. One of the good ones: celebrity heroism and ending sexual violence in armed conflict Conclusions: why does global politics need heroes?
