In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

ONE Introduction We often use the term "hero" as if it denoted a universally recognized character type, and the concept of "heroism" as if it referred to a generally accepted behavioral category. In reality, figures (both real and mythic) and actions dubbed heroic in one context or by one group of people may be viewed as ordinary or even criminal in another context or by other groups, or even by the same ones at different times. The diverse ways in which people conceptualize the hero and heroic action seem to be precisely what Robert Penn Warren had in mind when he observed that "To create a hero is, indeed, to create a self."! To create a hero, however, from Warren's perspective, is not merely to embody in a literary form a mirror image of the self at a given moment in time. Rather, the heroes that we create are figures who, from our vantage point on the world, appear to possess personal traits and/ or perform actions that exemplify our conception of our ideal self, the self that our personal or group history, in the best of all possible worlds, has prepared us to become. Or, as Warren notes, "The hero does not merely express a pre-existing soul, is not merely a projection of that soul, the hero belongs primarily to the process whereby the soul emerges."2 In other words, a hero is the product of a creative process and exists as a symbol of our differential identity. As such, our heroes act within boundaries defined by our perception of immanent social needs and goals which are, in turn, determined by historical and emergent realities of which we, as individuals and groups, may be only dimly aware. , In this regard, heroic creation is a process very much like culturebuilding -the means by which a group creates and maintains an image of itself to proclaim difference from others by objectifying in its institutions the ideals that it claims for itself. In addition, heroic creation and culture-building share at least one other important feature: in both instances, difference is equated with superiority, which, in turn, serves as the basis of group allegiance and attraction. Heroic 2/ Introduction creation is not the same thing as culture-building, but it often serves as an important activity for enhancing and facilitating the attainment of cultural goals. A group may employ heroic creation to "cover cracks" in the basic structure of its culture, so that an ideal image of itself can be projected as if it were actual. Inasmuch as all cultures are continually subjected to stresses from both within and without, both culture-building and heroic creation are on-going activities that are both remedial and expansive. The relationship between differential identity as a function of culture -building and heroic creation as a culture-specific activity has been the element most often missing in discussions of the hero in folklore, where heroic creation has the greatest interface with culture . The absence of a perception of this relationship has been particularly evident in discussions of the African American folk heroic tradition, where figures accepted as heroic by African Americans have seldom been discussed as symbols of black cultural identity. Bill R. Hampton, for instance, notes that in the study of the African American folk hero "the discussion has been a controversy over whether there has been any identification at all" between African Americans and their folk heroes." Fred O. Weldon contends directly that African American folk heroes do not serve as symbols of black differential identity because "group identification has been so weakened that these feelings [those necessary for folk heroic creation] cannot manifest themselves in the form of group heroes;" The heroes that do emerge in African American folklore, according to Weldon, "are ineffectual dissembling tricksters who, all too often, get only private revenge ."" From this perspective, folklorists, with few exceptions, view the actions of black folk heroes as incapable of serving the culturebuilding needs of African Americans. More often than not, they study African American folk heroic literature as a primary example of how heroic fiction serves the needs of a people in creating a dreamlife rather than in maintaining cultural identity and values. This approach to study of the African American folk heroic tradition reflects a tendency in folkloristics to conceptualize the hero, at least implicitly, as a universal character-type whose actions are defined within a so-called normative model of heroic action. This model of heroism assumes...

Share