Caryl Phillips and the Heroic

TY - JOUR

T1 - Caryl Phillips and the Heroic

AU - Rahbek, Ulla

PY - 2017/7/1

Y1 - 2017/7/1

N2 - This article explores the notion of the heroic in fictional and non-fictional work by Black British writer Caryl Phillips. It uses an ambivalent Caribbean longing for heroes as a point of departure from which to discuss hero-Theory and its applicability to the types of heroes found in Phillips' writing. It focuses in particular on The Final Passage (1985), Crossing the River (1993), The Atlantic Sound (2000), and A Distant Shore (2003) in its elaboration of the characteristics of a Phillipsian heroic and how and where to locate such figures. Qualities such as dignity, courage, no-saying, and global ways of being and seeing emerge as heroic traits, apparent also in Phillips' essays in A New World Order (2001) and Colour Me English (2011).

AB - This article explores the notion of the heroic in fictional and non-fictional work by Black British writer Caryl Phillips. It uses an ambivalent Caribbean longing for heroes as a point of departure from which to discuss hero-Theory and its applicability to the types of heroes found in Phillips' writing. It focuses in particular on The Final Passage (1985), Crossing the River (1993), The Atlantic Sound (2000), and A Distant Shore (2003) in its elaboration of the characteristics of a Phillipsian heroic and how and where to locate such figures. Qualities such as dignity, courage, no-saying, and global ways of being and seeing emerge as heroic traits, apparent also in Phillips' essays in A New World Order (2001) and Colour Me English (2011).

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - helteskikkelser

KW - heroisme

KW - Caryl Phillips

U2 - 10.1353/ari.2017.0027

DO - 10.1353/ari.2017.0027

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0004-1327

VL - 48

SP - 77

EP - 101

JO - Ariel

JF - Ariel

IS - 3-4

ER -