Sport und das Heroische in Moderne und Gegenwart

At the beginning of the 20th century, sport turned into a phenomenon with great cultural reach. The modern sporting hero came onto the scene as an often politically and economically instrumentalised picture of perfection, showcased both in the media and at competitions. Despite criticism of this category and of the emergence of star cult, sportspeople are still being heroised in our ‚postheroic‘ present. The contributions from literary and cultural studies, history and sociology contained in this volume – whilst also taking intersectional perspectives and different forms of media into account – ask questions about the manners in which heroism in sport is constructed, about its characteristics and functions, and thus about manifestations of the heroic in modernity and the present.

With contributions by
Thomas Bauer | Karl-H. Bette, M.A. (USA) | Gunter Gebauer | Dietmar Hüser | Stephan Krause | Claudia Müller | Dietmar Neutatz | Helmut Pfeiffer | Melina Riegel | Michael Staack | Olaf Stieglitz