An Anti-hero with a Thousand Faces. The Migration of a Narrative Device from Literature to Tv Series
Abstract
My essay intends to explore the definition of the anti-hero and the narrative function of this figure. The concept of anti-hero clearly has a central role as a tool of both narrative structures and genres. Starting from the typology of the anti-hero and some literary examples I will analyse the many adaptations of this narrative device into different forms of expression like theatre, literature and cinema, and in particular, TV series.
Downloads
References
Abrams, Meyer Howard, “Antihero”, A Glossary of Literary Terms, Seventh Edition, Boston, Heinle & Heinle, 1999: 11.
Albertazzi, Silvia, Belli e perdenti: antieroi e posteroi nella narrativa contemporanea di lingua inglese, Roma, Armando, 2012.
Aristotele, Retorica, Poetica, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1973.
Baldick, Chris, “Anti-hero”, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001: 13.
Brombert, Victor, In Praise of Antiheroes. Figures and Themes in Modern European Literature 1830-1980, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Campbell, Joseph, L’eroe dai mille volti (1949), Milano, Feltrinelli, 1958.
Carroll, Noël, “Sympathy for the Devil”, The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am, Eds. Richard Greene - Peter Vernezze, La Salle, IL, Open Court, 2004: 121–136.
Cuddon, J.A., “Anti-hero”, A Dictionary of Literary Terms, London, Andre Deutsch, 1979: 46.
Donnelly, Ashley M., Renegade Hero or Faux Rogue: The Secret Traditionalism of Television Bad Boys, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2014.
Eco, Umberto, “L’uso pratico del personaggio”, in Apocalittici e integrati, Milano, Bompiani, 1964: 187-218.
Eco, Umberto, Il superuomo di massa. Retorica e ideologia nel romanzo popolare, Milano, Bompiani, 1978.
Forster, Edward Morgan, Aspetti del romanzo (1927), Milano, Garzanti, 1991.
Frye, Northrop, Anatomia della critica (1957), Torino, Einaudi, 1969.
Gorgolini, Ida, L’antieroe nel teatro pirandelliano, Viterbo, Albatros, 2013.
Hamon, Philippe, “Per uno statuto semiologico del personaggio” (1972), in Semiologia, lessico, leggibilità del testo narrativo, Parma, Pratiche, 1977: 85-127.
Hassan, Ihab, “The Antihero in Modern British and American Fiction” (1959), Id., Rumors of Change: Essays of Four Decades, Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press, 1995: 55-67.
Jouve, Vincent, L’effet-personnage dans le roman, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1992.
Lukács, György, “La fisionomia intellettuale dei personaggi artistici” (1936), in Il marxismo e la critica letteraria, Torino, Einaudi, 1953: 332-387.
Maio, Barbara, La terza Golden Age della televisione: autorialità, generi, modelli, Roma, Sabinae, 2009.
Marshall, Daniel, The Cinema Anti-hero, London, Athena, 2003.
Martin, Brett, Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution From the Soprano’s and the Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad, New York, Penguin Books, 2013.
Mittel, Jason, Complex Tv: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling, New York, New York University Press, 2015.
Nelson, Robin, State of Play: Contemporary “High End” Tv Drama, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2007.
Pichard, Alexis, Le nouvel âge d'or des séries américaines, Paris, Editions Le Manuscrit, 2011.
Simmons, David, The Anti-Hero in the American Novel: From Heller to Vonnegut, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Stara, Arrigo, L’avventura del personaggio, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2004.
Vaage, Margrethe Bruun, The Antihero in American Television, London, Routledge, 2015.
Warshow, Robert, “The Gangster as Tragic Hero” (1948), Id., The Immediate Experience: Movies, Comics Theatre and Other Aspects of popular Culture, Cambridge (MA), Harvard University Press, 1962: 127-33.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
