A Quest by Zachary HallerUNCF/MMUF

In Search of a (p)ostmodernist Hero

Map and Compass (Key Concepts)Postmodern (-ism), (-ity)Raymond Williams Theory of History:

Residual, Effective Dominant, and Emergent

The Trail (Criteria: The Hero Defined)Serious approach to LifeIn pursuit of Meaningful quests/ Quests for

meaningNoble due to moral choice- not birthImperfect. Hamartia: a miscalculation or

“missing the mark”Uncommon character

Odysseus and the SuitorsAnd tasteThe melancholy joy of evils past:For he who much has suffer'd, much will know.

---- The Odyssey, by Homer, Book XV, line 434.

A Residual Hero: The Romantic

He who ascends to moutaintops, shall find

The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;

He who surpasses or subdues mankindMust look down on the hate of those

below.--- Childe Harold’s

Pilgrimmage , Lord Byron,

Stanza 45.

1st Sign Post (Romantic Heroic expression)Rebel in exile“Larger than Life” passions or emotionsRejects dominant moral discourseQuests for Knowledge

The Modernist Hero:When the soul of a man is born in this

country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.

—A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chapter 5

2nd Sign Post (Modernist Heroic expression)Distrusts conventional moralsExhibits doubt or fear; helplessUnable to commit to idealsUnqualified for heroicsQuests for Order and Objectivity

An Emergent Hero: The Postmodern(?)

"A self does not amount to much, but no self is an island; each exists in a fabric of relations that is now more complex and mobile than ever before.” - The Postmodern Condition, Jean-François Lyotard (Ch. 5)

Postmodern Hero Possibilities

Candidates Heroic expressionThe “Conscious”

postmodernistOmeros

The “Capable” postmodernistAchile

The Author-in-(Con)textDerek Walcott

The Fragmented HeroHelen, the Island

Resigned to Chaos, but not helpless or victimized

Concerned not with resolution, but with engagement

Quests for Coherence (comprehension and integration)