In an age of upheaval and challenged faith, traditional heroes are hard to come by, and harder still to love, with their bloodstained hands and backs unbowed by the consequences of their actions. Through penetrating readings of key works of modern European literature, Victor Brombert shows how a new kind of hero—the antihero—has arisen to replace the toppled heroic model. Though they fail, by design, to live up to conventional expectations of mythic heroes, antiheroes are not necessarily "failures." They display different kinds of courage more in tune with our time and our needs: deficiency translated into strength, failure experienced as honesty, dignity achieved through humiliation. Brombert explores these paradoxes in the works of Büchner, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Svevo, Hašek, Frisch, Camus, and Levi. Coming from diverse cultural and linguistic traditions, these writers all use the figure of the antihero to question handed-down assumptions, to reexamine moral categories, and to raise issues of survival and renewal embodying the spirit of an uneasy age.

Modern films, shows, video games, and books are filled with bad guys gone good, "heroes" who fight for justice in unconventional ways. As entertaining as they are, without wise adults to point teens toward true justice and heroism, an entire generation could grow up believing people in masks are our hope. This guide will equip you to talk to your teen about why these characters are so appealing and what we can learn from both their positive, and negative traits. Parent Guides are your one-stop shop for biblical guidance on teen culture, trends, and struggles. In 15 pages or fewer, each guide tackles issues your teens are facing right now—things like doubts, the latest apps and video games, mental health, technological pitfalls, and more. Using Scripture as their backbone, these Parent Guides offer compassionate insight to teens’ world, thoughts, and feelings, as well as discussion questions and practical advice for impactful discipleship.

This book is a discussion of 75 of the most popular films in America from 1921 through 1999 and the changes that have taken place in how masculinity is portrayed in the movies over that period of time. Traditionally in popular films, men have met challenging tasks, but what they accomplish and how successful they are have been drastically changed since the early 1920s. Prior to World War II, men were most often presented within the context of a family. After the war, men were presented as concerned with issues beyond their immediate families, and after 1970, they were portrayed as being overwhelmed by their situations. Recently, popular films have tended to focus on the relationships between men. This work documents these changes over eight decades, using the movies as vehicles to illustrate the major transformations.

A thriller from start to end. We hurriedly walk across an empty, weed-filled lot to approach the house from the back. There’s very little light. Most street lights don’t work here. It’s perfect. I can only imagine how we would look to an incidental observer tonight, this gang of painted up, crazy looking freaks, and we are truly all of that. The living dead have come to call. White painted faces like death masks, all dressed in black as we stride across the overgrown lot in a neighborhood of abandoned and boarded up ramshackle houses, like a scene from a war torn country or the movie set of some vile, cheap, B-horror flick. We are a nightmare from Halloween come to life. Anyone encountering this spectacle would turn and run the other way...

The most interesting characters are almost never the good guys. Doing the right thing is great and all, but a little bit of darkness—or a lot of it—often makes for a more engaging story. Antiheroes: Heroes, Villains, and the Fine Line Between is dedicated to the dark heroes and sympathetic villains we love. Find out why William McKinley High's agonist Sue Sylvester is essential to Glee. Discover where your favorite comic book character falls on the continuum of good and evil. Weigh in on Twilight's very dangerous boy Edward Cullen: romantic, sparkly hero, or sociopath suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder? Plus other essays on: • The Vampire Diaries' most antiheroic antihero, Damon Salvatore • America's favorite serial killer, Dexter Morgan, and the nature (and nurture) of evil • The curious appeal of Alias' Arvin Sloane • Supernatural's vampire hunter-cum-vampire Gordon Walker • The shared monstrosity of Spider-Man, Doc Ock, and the Green Goblin • Gun-slinging necromancer Anita Blake, and the benefits (and pitfalls) of embracing the monster within This brand new, e-book only collection of essays—"remixed" from previous Smart Pop series titles—gives a funny and thought-provoking in-depth look at the antihero, from the villains just a little too good to be unequivocal bad guys, and the heroes just a bit too bad to be truly good.

Presentation of the author's psychoanalytic beliefs and experiences inchild psychoanalytic therapy.

One dimensional television characters are a thing of the past--today's popular shows feature intricate storylines and well developed characters. From the brooding Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries to the tough-minded Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead, protagonists are not categorically good, antagonists often have relatable good sides, and heroes may act as antiheroes from one episode to the next. This collection of new essays examines the complex characters in Orange Is the New Black, Homeland, Key & Peele, Oz, Empire, Breaking Bad, House, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This title examines the role and theme of the antihero archetype in Macbeth, Wuthering Heights, Notes from Underground, and Native Son. It features four analysis papers that consider the antihero theme, each using different critical lenses, writing techniques, or aspects of the theme. Critical thinking questions, sidebars highlighting and explaining each thesis and argument, and other possible approaches for analysis help students understand the mechanics of essay writing. Features include a glossary, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Across the academy, scholars are debating the question of what bearing scientific inquiry has upon the humanities. The latest addition to the AFI Film Readers series, Cognitive Media Theory takes up this question in the context of film and media studies. This collection of essays by internationally recognized researchers in film and media studies, psychology, and philosophy offers film and media scholars and advanced students an introduction to contemporary cognitive media theory—an approach to the study of diverse media forms and content that draws upon both the methods and explanations of the sciences and the humanities. Exploring topics that range from color perception to the moral appraisal of characters to our interactive engagement with videogames, Cognitive Media Theory showcases the richness and diversity of cognitivist research. This volume will be of interest not only to students and scholars of film and media, but to anyone interested in the possibility of a productive relationship between the sciences and humanities.

Characters are central to our experiences of screened fictions and invite a host of questions. The contributors to Screening Characters draw on archival material, interviews, philosophical inquiry, and conceptual analysis in order to give new, thought-provoking answers to these queries. Providing multifaceted accounts of the nature of screen characters, contributions are organized around a series of important subjects, including issues of class, race, ethics, and generic types as they are encountered in moving image media. These topics, in turn, are personified by such memorable figures as Cary Grant, Jon Hamm, Audrey Hepburn, and Seul-gi Kim, in addition to avatars, online personalities, animated characters, and the ensembles of shows such as The Sopranos, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad.