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The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction, and Television
Tracing the influence of Lord Byron’s Manfred as outcast hero on a pantheon of his contemporary progenies—including characters from Pale Rider, Unforgiven, The Terminator, Aliens, The Crow, Sandman, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Angel—Atara Stein tempers her academic acumen with the insights of a devoted aficionado in this first comprehensive study of the Romantic hero type and his modern kindred.
The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction, and Television bridges nineteenth- and twentieth-century studies in pursuit of an ambitious, antisocial, arrogant, and aggressively individualistic mode of hero from his inception in Byron’s Manfred, Childe Harold, and Cain, through his incarnations as the protagonists of Westerns, action flicks, space odysseys, vampire novels, neo-Gothic comics, and sci-fi television. Such a hero exhibits supernatural abilities, adherence to a personal moral code, ineptitude at human interaction (muddled even further by self-absorbed egotism), and an ingrained defiance of oppressive authority. He is typically an outlaw, most certainly an outcast or outsider, and more often than not, he is a he. Given his superhuman status, this hero offers no potential for sympathetic identification from his audience. At best, he provides an outlet for vicarious expressions of power and independence. While audiences may not seek to emulate the Byronic hero, Stein notes that he desires to emulate them; recent texts plot to “rehumanize” the hero or to voice through him approbation and admiration of ordinary human values and experiences.
Providing thoughtful analyses of her examples, Stein places her Byronic heroes into two camps: the leader-hero who pursues justice outside the law through explosive violence, illustrated in a trio of Clint Eastwood Westerns, the Crow films, and the Terminator films; and the angst-ridden loner hero who views his power as a burden and pines for human existence, represented in Anne Rice’s vampire novels and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels. She also provides a detailed examination of one manifestation of the Byronic hero who embodies traits of both leader-hero and gloomy egotist: Q, the omnipotent alien from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Byronic heroine is not wholly absent from our culture, as Stein proves by her inclusion of Terminator’s Sarah Connor and Alien’s Ellen Ripley. Both assume Byronic traits as they war against oppressive institutional authority while also actively seeking liberation from socially imposed constraints of gender. Stein concludes her innovative study with an engaging discussion of pop culture’s most current and complete version of the Byronic hero: the brooding vampiric champion of Angel.
Typified by a fiery autonomy, empowered inhumanity, and flamboyant self-realization, the Byronic hero with his many sullen faces has asserted his popular appeal with audiences for over two centuries. Complemented by nine illustrations, Stein’s perceptive reading of his nature and nuances demonstrates that his immortality will not soon wane.
The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction, and Television bridges nineteenth- and twentieth-century studies in pursuit of an ambitious, antisocial, arrogant, and aggressively individualistic mode of hero from his inception in Byron’s Manfred, Childe Harold, and Cain, through his incarnations as the protagonists of Westerns, action flicks, space odysseys, vampire novels, neo-Gothic comics, and sci-fi television. Such a hero exhibits supernatural abilities, adherence to a personal moral code, ineptitude at human interaction (muddled even further by self-absorbed egotism), and an ingrained defiance of oppressive authority. He is typically an outlaw, most certainly an outcast or outsider, and more often than not, he is a he. Given his superhuman status, this hero offers no potential for sympathetic identification from his audience. At best, he provides an outlet for vicarious expressions of power and independence. While audiences may not seek to emulate the Byronic hero, Stein notes that he desires to emulate them; recent texts plot to “rehumanize” the hero or to voice through him approbation and admiration of ordinary human values and experiences.
Providing thoughtful analyses of her examples, Stein places her Byronic heroes into two camps: the leader-hero who pursues justice outside the law through explosive violence, illustrated in a trio of Clint Eastwood Westerns, the Crow films, and the Terminator films; and the angst-ridden loner hero who views his power as a burden and pines for human existence, represented in Anne Rice’s vampire novels and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels. She also provides a detailed examination of one manifestation of the Byronic hero who embodies traits of both leader-hero and gloomy egotist: Q, the omnipotent alien from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Byronic heroine is not wholly absent from our culture, as Stein proves by her inclusion of Terminator’s Sarah Connor and Alien’s Ellen Ripley. Both assume Byronic traits as they war against oppressive institutional authority while also actively seeking liberation from socially imposed constraints of gender. Stein concludes her innovative study with an engaging discussion of pop culture’s most current and complete version of the Byronic hero: the brooding vampiric champion of Angel.
Typified by a fiery autonomy, empowered inhumanity, and flamboyant self-realization, the Byronic hero with his many sullen faces has asserted his popular appeal with audiences for over two centuries. Complemented by nine illustrations, Stein’s perceptive reading of his nature and nuances demonstrates that his immortality will not soon wane.
- GenresRomanticism
272 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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November 18, 2021A lot of these comparisons felt like reaches for me and part of it is how these texts examined have aged since 2004. Skimmed a lot of it. Did appreciate the write-up about Eric Draven in The Crow.
June 23, 2023
it terminated me <3
January 31, 2014
Atara Stein did not really know where she was heading... She had a vision - that the Byronic hero can be found everywhere. She was right, but that's about it - at least in case of the first two chapters, and especially in the one dedicated to Anne Rice's portrayal of Byronic vampires...
Throughout the whole chapter on Vampire Chronicles, Stein presents the reader with an exhausting description of (mainly) Lestat's Byronic traits, but her arguments are hardly ever backed-up by quotes from other studies, or counter-arguments. Obvious information are presented to the reader as something that has - only recently! - been discovered, but one who read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and tried to speculate on the themes himself won't be much surprised. This thorough description of "outdated" (or obvious) information becomes even more irritating when you come across the sentence "the Vampire Chronicles now comprise an eight-book series, and Anne Rice has embarked on a new series: New Tales of the Vampires, consisting of two books as of this writing" (p. 100). Apparently, Stein could have done more than just describing Lestat's (and Louis's) appearance in the first two books - but for some obscure reason, she decided not to do so. No explanation is given and the reader is lead to believe that the first two books are a sufficient back-up for all her claims. A vampire character is read - as is usual for a lot of Anne Rice's criticisms - only through the characters of Lestat and Louis, and as a consequence the complexity of the characters vanishes; what remains is only a Romantic skeleton of Anne Rice's vampires. Searching for new - or at least interestingly put, yet "old" points - is really tiresome and irritating, because Stein loves to repeat all (her) thoughts at least twice or three times. Moreover, on several places she contradicts herself. Add to it all the typos - such as "sqmbol" or "agout" - and you have a book that will not give you information on the Byronic hero, but will - sooner or later - turn you in one of them. Aggressive, brooding, self-sufficient - the reader will scream: "I do not need any Stein to know THIS!"
Throughout the whole chapter on Vampire Chronicles, Stein presents the reader with an exhausting description of (mainly) Lestat's Byronic traits, but her arguments are hardly ever backed-up by quotes from other studies, or counter-arguments. Obvious information are presented to the reader as something that has - only recently! - been discovered, but one who read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and tried to speculate on the themes himself won't be much surprised. This thorough description of "outdated" (or obvious) information becomes even more irritating when you come across the sentence "the Vampire Chronicles now comprise an eight-book series, and Anne Rice has embarked on a new series: New Tales of the Vampires, consisting of two books as of this writing" (p. 100). Apparently, Stein could have done more than just describing Lestat's (and Louis's) appearance in the first two books - but for some obscure reason, she decided not to do so. No explanation is given and the reader is lead to believe that the first two books are a sufficient back-up for all her claims. A vampire character is read - as is usual for a lot of Anne Rice's criticisms - only through the characters of Lestat and Louis, and as a consequence the complexity of the characters vanishes; what remains is only a Romantic skeleton of Anne Rice's vampires. Searching for new - or at least interestingly put, yet "old" points - is really tiresome and irritating, because Stein loves to repeat all (her) thoughts at least twice or three times. Moreover, on several places she contradicts herself. Add to it all the typos - such as "sqmbol" or "agout" - and you have a book that will not give you information on the Byronic hero, but will - sooner or later - turn you in one of them. Aggressive, brooding, self-sufficient - the reader will scream: "I do not need any Stein to know THIS!"
July 28, 2011
The most interesting stuff is in the Introduction. The rest gets a little repetitive. The majority of the book is devoted to in-depth character analysis, so if you're looking for a lot of examples, try something else.
July 30, 2007
A very useful resource.
December 30, 2009
despite the uninspiring title, an interesting and often hilarious book.
September 27, 2011
I like this book. Have always been fascinated by byronic hero character (mainly Mr. Rochester). My favorite part of this book is the chapter where the author analyze about the character 'Angel'.
Want to Read
April 26, 2015bookfi.com
July 17, 2023
good book. read for school. author’s very passionate, and i’d love to discuss my essay w her!!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews