This issue of helden. heroes. héros. extends scholarly interest in the heroic to the field of heroised animals, striving to add new perspectives to notions of heroism and the heroic. Animals have long played a crucial role in how we construct our identity as human beings. Over time, our perception of animals and how they relate to us has undergone significant changes. In recent decades, there has been a surge of interest in human–animal relations. The ‘animal turn’, mainly associated with the 1990s, raised questions of boundaries between men and the rest of the natural world with renewed vigour. Heroic behaviour has traditionally been conceived of as intrinsically human behaviour but it is a feasible and profitable enterprise to look beyond the limits of species in hero studies.
INHALT
Marie-Luise Egbert and Ulrike ZimmermannEditorial (3–6)
Stefanie LethbridgeEntangled Agency: Dragons and Direwolves in Game of Thrones (7–16)
Angelika ZirkerDogs and Horses as Heroes: Animal (Auto)Biographies in England, 1751-1800 (17–25)
Kelly Minelli"God’s humbler instrument of meaner clay, must share the honours of that glorious day." Die Heroisierung von Kriegspferden und ihre Funktion im Hinblick auf Heroisierungsprozesse in der militärischen Erinnerungskultur der Napoleonischen Kriege im 19. Jahrhundert (27–40)
Klara Stephanie Szlezák"Famous", "Immortal" – and Heroic? The White Whale as Hero in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (41–47)
Tina HartmannWiderspruch mit der Zunge einer Hündin. Tierlicher Antiheroismus in Blondi von Michael Degen (49–60)
Tom Chadwick"Let’s have some fucking water for these animals." Animal Survival and Inter-Species Heroism in Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man (61–70)
Claudia LillgeKönnen Tiere Helden sein? Anthropozentrischer und zoozentrischer Anthropomorphismus in Gabriela Cowperthwaites Blackfish (71–79)