This multidisciplinary conference aims to highlight the complex and interrelated processes of creation, marketing, consumption, and impact, of globalized hero narratives, as well as the numerous cultural flows of exchange that have made them possible since the end of World War II. We are interested in contributions (case studies) which conceive of heroism as a transcultural and transnational phenomenon that may originate in one particular nation but ultimately transcends borders. Questions to be discussed would include how the meanings of heroic figures and narratives are changed in cultural translation, or what specific processes are active in the world-wide exchange of figures and concepts of the heroic. Case studies can focus on situations in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.

PROGRAMM

Thursday, September 28, 2017

American Heroes Go Global I
15.00 | Introduction: ‘Global and Popular Heroism’: Theoretical Concepts and Approaches
Barbara Korte (Freiburg) and Simon Wendt (Frankfurt a.M.)
15.30 | One Hero Fits All? The Case of ‘Doctor Strange’ and New Frictions in Cultural Translation
Nicole Falkenhayner, Maria-Xenia Hardt, Julia Ditter, Özlem Sarica (Freiburg)
16.00 | ‘Guardians’ [Zaščitniki]: A Russian-Soviet Answer to Superman and Batman
Dietmar Neutatz (Freiburg)
16.30 | Plenary Comments

American Heroes Go Global II
17.15 | The Transnational Heroization of Donald Trump
Michael Butter (Tübingen)
17.45 | Axe and Helmet: The Increasing Range of New York Firefighters as (Super)Heroes
Wolfgang Hochbruck (Freiburg)
18.15 | Plenary Comments

Friday, September 29, 2017

Travelling Traditions
10.00 | The Hagakure between Japan, Germany and the US
Nadja Gernalzick (Mainz)
10.30 | Shaolin Martial Arts Heroes in Industrial Hong Kong
Ricardo Mak (Hong Kong)
11.00 | Reinventing Superheroes: Global Superheroes with an Indian Twist
Binoy B. Agarwal (New Delhi)
11.30 | Plenary Comments

Heroes or Villains?
13.15 | Gangsters are Desi: Indianization of a Hollywood Stereotype
Sugata Nandi (Kolkata)
13.45 | Hero and/or Villain?: ‘The 99’, Mixed Reception, & the Study and Popular Conceptualizations of Global Islam
Ken Chitwood (Gainesville, FL)
14.15 | The Transnational Interface of Heroes, Villains, and Those in Between
Ariel Heryanto (Monash, AUS)
14.45 | Plenary Comments

(Post)Imperial Heroes
15.30 | ‘Y’a bon?’ Popularizing tirailleurs africains as heroes of (anti) colonialism
Konstanze N’Guessan (Mainz) and Mareike Späth (Frankfurt a.M.)
16.00 | Biggles, Britain and (Imperial?) Heroism
Michael Goodrum (Canterbury)
16.30 | ‘Outlaw Hero’ – Bob Marley, Reggae and Rastapolitism into the New Millennium
Sonjah S. Niaah (Mona, West Indies)
17.00 | Plenary Comments

20.00 | Film Screening at Koki Freiburg
Dainipponjin (2007, OWS)

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Politics and Popular Culture
9.30 | Princess at Home, Heroine Around the World. Disney’s Female Protagonists as a Phenomenon of Global Heroism
Sotirios Kimon Mouzakis (Freiburg)
10.00 | Narratives about Heroes in Chinese Cinema: Analysis of Hero (2002)
Shuxi Yin (Hefei)
10.30 | Gay Alien Seeking Democracy: Queer Adaptation, Heroism, and Political Critique in Turkey
Rüstem Ertug Altinay (New York)
11.00 | Plenary Comments

11.15 | Final Comments and Discussion