Popular Hero Research Articles

The Life of Raycho Nikolov in Light of New Sources: Hero of Three Wars and Three Countries

Abstract Raycho Nikolov is among the builders of the modern Bulgarian army, a typical person of the nineteenth century, charged with ardent patriotism driving him to brave exploits on the battlefields. This work observes the life of this man, a popular hero in Bulgaria and Russia, involved in military conflicts also in Poland and Serbia. Strangely, his popularity has not led to serious scholarly research so far, and until recently, knowledge about him was shrouded in obscurity. The present study of a long-unused collection of his documental heritage at the Plovdiv Regional History Museum reveals various misunderstandings and wrong interpretations by previous researchers, who in many cases created an image far removed from the actual one.

The Evaluation of the national Struggle of the Risorgimento famous figures in '' The Mshak''

The Italian Risorgimento, which aimed to overthrow the Austrian rule and unite Italy, found a wide response in the Armenian public thought of the time and in the periodical press. Reflecting on this, “Mshak” newspaper, the pioneer of the Armenian liberal current, highlighted the role of Risorgimento leaders Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, King Victor Emmanuel II and Count Camillo Cavour in the unification of Italy. The newspaper calls G. Mazzini “prominent republican”, “democratic genius” and “great patriot”, who had been fascinated by the idea of ​​freedom and union of his homeland since his student years. In particular “Mshak” newspaper highly appreciates G. Garibaldi’s contribution to the struggle for the unification of Italy, calling him “a great Italian patriot” who immortalized his name with his services to the motherland. According to the description of the newspaper, G. Garibaldi constantly invited his compatriots to fight for freedom and showed them a personal example of “unshakable determination”. “Mshak” characterizes King Victor Emmanuel II as “an outstanding patriot and an outstanding statesman”, a patriot and brave soldier, a king guided by the interests of the people and the state. According to the opinion of the newspaper, the king was a cautious person, he never took a decisive step, he allowed popular hero G. Garibaldi to start the struggle every time. In this way, he united Italy, which he considered the goal of his life. According to “Mshak”, Victor Emmanuel’s “name occupies a glorious place in the history of Italy”. “Mshak” also highlights C. Cavour in the Italian liberation struggle. According to the newspaper, King Victor Emmanuel was always guided by C. Cavour’s advice and “he is beholden to him most of his successes”.

Образ культурного героя Сартакпая в алтайском фольклоре

Introduction. Altaian mythology is a distinct religious and mythological system, since historical and cultural ties of the Altai people go deep into the ancient and medieval history of Central Asian Turks and Mongols. The article analyzes Altaian myths centered around the culture hero Sartakpai whose image is widely known in folklore traditions of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. Goals. The work aims to identify mythological foundations in the system of cultural landscapes (or ethnocultural space) inherent to the Altai people. Materials and methods. To facilitate this, it is urgent to reveal mechanisms that sustain the religious and mythological tradition, and serve to select, preserve or remove certain elements in plots of myths, folktales, and legends. So, it is a combination of traditional folklore research methods and an interdisciplinary approach that proves instrumental therein. The paper examines multi-genre texts of Altaian folklore from a comparative perspective, and involves comparative materials of related cultures. This makes it possible to consider the Altaian religious and mythological system in its close relationship with the mythological world view, identify some new dimensions, and actualize relations between its ‘ancient’ and ‘new’ layers. Results. It is generally agreed that Altaian mythology is largely etiological by nature and tends to express worldviews and attitudes of the people’s distant ancestors. The Altaian system of cultural landscapes (or ethnic space) comprises a concept of its mythological development. Hierarchically arranged deities and spirits — each occupying a special niche in three-dimensional space — co-exist with culture heroes that had arranged (developed) certain places, rivers, lakes in the Middle World. And it is Sartakpai who proves a most popular hero of Altaian folklore and whose name is associated with origins of some natural objects. In Altaian mythology, he is viewed as a most active builder of the human-inhabited Middle World — and a native of the Altai. His image is creative, and it is him who had left behind lots of productive evidence in cultural heritage of the Altai people that survive to date, the culture hero himself being still perceived as a glorified historical figure rather than a mythological character. Therefore, the image of Sartakpai persists in present-day ethnocultural processes and discourse.

Laughing Off Hollywood’s Representation Practices: the Joker’s Cultural Politics

Hollywood’s popular hero films are infused with hegemonic representations and narratives that can potentially shape or maintain certain beliefs and attitudes. Superheroes especially have become ubiquitous and a fuel for the civic imagination. Such is the case of the Joker, a comic book anarchic supervillain, a criminal mastermind who antagonizes Batman, and a mythic palimpsest that evolves and adapts to the socio-political zeitgeist. The present research aims to qualitatively explore the Joker’s cultural politics and investigates two of the highest-grossing Joker films, “Joker” (2019) and “The Dark Knight” (2008), through semiotic and discursive analyses of their politics of representation and signifying practices, the purpose of which is to shine a light on the “Joker” symbol as represented in film. The results indicate that the Joker’s cultural politics is pervaded by markers of gender violence, sexism, ableism, and racism, thus embodying Hollywood’s mass-distributed discourses which are heavily informed by the same hegemonic masculinity, as well as race, gender, and disability stereotypes.

Research on Characterization and Shaping of Chinese Heroic Characters in Online Media Based on Deep Neural Network Evaluation

Shaping the image of heroic characters is an important task of melodramatic films and TV dramas, whether they are revolutionary heroes, combat heroes, leader heroes, or civilian heroes, which have always been the key objects of melodramatic films and TV dramas. However, the traditional melodramatic films and TV dramas are facing many bottlenecks in the acceptance of heroic characters in the new era. In this paper, in order to obtain a richer character text, we divide the denotation elimination into two parts; one is the denotation elimination without considering the zero pronoun phenomenon, which is mainly done by the existing end-to-end neural codenotation algorithm, and the other is the attention-based algorithm model for the zero pronoun phenomenon. Analyzing this result from the perspective of the algorithmic model, it can be speculated that the lexical vector has a superior performance in the overall predicted character score, indicating that in the Big Five personality analysis for characters, the character’s personality is more reflected in lexicality, and the scores on a person’s Big Five personality dimensions can be indirectly reflected by the frequency of using different lexicalities. The similarities and differences among heroes are explored to create a popular hero image.

The Ancient Near East: History, Texts, etc.

The Ancient Near East:History, Texts, etc. Thomas Hieke, Christopher T. Begg, Fred W. Guyette, and Victor H. Matthews Thomas Hieke Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Fred W. Guyette Erskine College and Seminary Victor H. Matthews Missouri State University 25. [LKA 64] Johannes Bach, "LKA 64: A possible royal song (zamar šarri) celebrating the Trans-Euphratian victories of Aššurnaṣirpal II's 9th campaign," UF 49 (2018) 1-27. B.'s paper edits, translates, and comments on LKA 64, a royal hymn from the reign of Aššurnaṣirpal II that deals with the only trans-Euphratian military campaign conducted by this king. It also analyzes the narratological arrangement of the text in minute detail and compares it in this regard to the poetics of LKA 64's Middle Assyrian predecessor LKA 63 [End Page 9] from the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I. The article concludes by drawing attention to the rather exceptional narrative style that was used by the scribes of Aššurnaṣirpal II for this text. [Adapted from published abstract—T.H.] Google Scholar 26. [Sargonid Royal Literary Identity and the Epic of Gilgameš] Johannes Bach, "Royal Literary Identity under the Sargonids and the Epic of Gilgameš," WdO 50 (2, 2020) 318-38. The high number of intertexts drawn from the Epic of Gilgameš in the corpus of Sargonid-era royal narratives is unprecedented in Assyrian literary history. Basing itself on the work of Kenneth Gergen on narrativity and identity construction, this paper understands these programmatic innovations as deliberate attempts by the Sargonids to reformulate their royal identity. Utilizing a concise methodology for intertextual analysis inspired by Gérard Genette, I seek to show how two prominent Sargonid texts, i.e., the royal report known as "Sargon's Eighth Campaign" (TCL 3) and the inscription Esh. 1 use allusions to the Gilgameš epic to inscribe the figure of the Assyrian king into a literary world analogous to that of the legendary king of Uruk. This process culminated with a literary paralleling of Assyrian kingship with that of Gilgameš under Esarhaddon. My paper closes with a short survey of other Gilgameš-related elements in Sargonid-era Assyrian culture and concluding thoughts on the "expansion of the narrative borders" of Assyrian royal identity. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 27. [The Story of Sinuhe] Miroslav Bárta and Jiři Janák, "Sinuhe: Popular Hero, Court Politics, and the Royal Paradigm," Middle Kingdom Palace Culture, 101-18 [see #789]. The Story of Sinuhe is one of the best preserved, best known, and most often read, translated, analyzed, and discussed literary texts from ancient Egypt, one that had been known for more than a century and inspired both Egyptologists and fiction writers. Yet, despite all the efforts of modern scholarship, many would agree that the story has not been fully understood with regard to its form, meaning and context. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 28. [Relationships at Elephantine] Bob Becking, "Love and Friendship in Elephantine," With the Loyal You Show Yourself Loyal, 81-96 [see #794]. Elephantine is an island in the Nile. During the fifth century b.c.e., a Persian garrison was established on the island to regulate trade going up and down the Nile. There is abundant textual evidence of religious diversity and intermarriage on the island. Texts of three genres found at Elephantine—a wisdom story, letters, and a marriage contract—reveal some of the dimensions of love and friendship in that time and place: (1) The Story of Ahiqar is about a scribe in the court of Esarhaddon. Ahiqar has no heir, so he adopts his nephew. But this nephew participates in a plot against the king, and Esarhaddon sends one of his agents, Nabusumiskun, to kill Ahiqar (though in truth, Ahiqar never had any knowledge of the conspiracy). However, since Ahiqar once spared the life of Nabusumiskun many years ago, the agent now returns the favor, showing loyalty to Ahiqar and sparing his life. (2) The Jews of Elephantine wrote letters to the Persian governor (Bagohi) requesting his financial help...

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: A ROMANTIC CAVALIER IN MODERN TIMES

Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, was one of the most controversial figures in the field of Oriental studies. While some acclaim him as an epic hero who provoked the Arab revolt against the Turks, others criticize him for being an egocentric and embellisher who played a sideshow role during the War. Either as a popular hero characterized by speculative representations or a historical figure well documented by his biographers, Lawrence has an outstanding reputation in the area. Therefore, there are many academic studies based on his heroic fame and detailed war narratives. This study aims to illustrate how this epic heroism is represented by T. E. Lawrence in his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1921-2). Through a detailed literary analysis of the book, it also hopes to reveal how Lawrence represents himself as a romantic cavalier. In this context, the study will first examine Lawrence’s aristocratic background and deep interest in mediaeval studies. His identity clashes stemming from his contact with the Arabs will also be investigated to show his quest for a new heroic identity. Then, Lawrence’s reliability as a narrator will be questioned. Some fictional incidences included in his book will be analysed to explore how these false accounts help Lawrence’s aim of representing himself as a mystic and romantic hero. Overall, the study hopes to contribute to the existent scholarship by examining a controversial political figure through the lenses of chivalry, heroism and Medieval studies.

THE BATTLE FOR RE-IMAGINING CATALONIA: CINEMATIC POPULISM, MYTH-MAKING, AND CATHEDRAL OF THE SEA (JORDI FRADES, 2018)

In this article, we argue that the TV series event with the highest audience in recent Catalan history, La catedral del mar /Cathedral of the Sea (Jordi Frades, 2018), is an example of commercial cinematic populism. Cathedral of the Sea is built on formal elements of the classic Hollywood style (for example, continuous editing, linear narrative, lack of moral ambiguity), and a series of substantive dichotomies (people/ elite, the popular hero/ the villain, the good/ the bad) and myths (the savior, the unity of the people). In analyzing their significance, we distinguish three hermeneutic layers, the populist, the general-mythical, and the Catalan historical context, which, in combination, constitute the cinematic narrative. Therein the central hero of Cathedral of the Sea, Arnau Estanyol, personifies the myth of the commoner who, by accumulating a whole range of virtues and social roles, synecdochically stands for the triumphant emergence of the modern Catalan people. This narrative is, we maintain, traversed by a tension between the populist call for emancipation, incarnated by Arnau, and the phantasmal self-gratification based on the depiction of a world devoid of complexity.

Maradona: mito popular, símbolo peronista, voz plebeya

En el contexto de una reflexión que apunta a la relación entre deporte e identidades, el texto aborda conceptos como cultura, héroe popular o subalternidad a partir del análisis del alcance de la figura del futbolista argentino Diego Maradona. Su muerte en noviembre de 2020, que provocó enormes manifestaciones de dolor público, desató una intensa cobertura que abusó de términos tales como mito, símbolo, héroe, ídolo e identidad. La pregunta clave giró en torno de hasta dónde Maradona, un deportista inigualable y simultáneamente una figura pública conflictiva, por su conducta personal (entre ellas, condenas deportivas y causas penales por consumo de drogas) y por sus posiciones políticas vinculadas al populismo de izquierda, podía ser considerado un símbolo de una presunta identidad nacional.

ПУТЕШЕСТВИЕ КАК СПОСОБ ДУХОВНОГО И ФИЗИЧЕСКОГО СТАНОВЛЕНИЯ В НЕМЕЦКОЯЗЫЧНОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ ДЛЯ ЮНОШЕСТВА ПЕРВОЙ ПОЛОВИНЫ XIX В.

The aim of the research is to examine the theme of travelling in the works of German authors of the first half of the 19th century in relation to its didactic orientation to the spiritual and physical improvement of the developing hero. The article examines different motives of the spiritual and physical formation of young heroes, and an important plot constitutive motif of journey. In the novel of upbringing by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (“Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre”, 1796; “Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, oder Die Entsagenden”, 1829), a significant place is given to the idea of transformation and development, which is embodied in the narrative. The heroes of Goethe’s dilogy find their place in life, improving themselves in movement and work. The journey occupies a significant place in the children’s literature of this period (L. Chimani, Ch. Hildebrandt, L. Hölder, J. Meynier, K. Biernatzki), and a few others. The methodology is based on the principles of comparative literary studies. Works from the same period of German literature are compared typologically. Writers working for children and young people pick up and develop the theme of distant wanderings and the discovery of new territories. Robinson becomes a popular hero again. Writers use the genre of robinsonade not only to show the attractiveness of travelling, but also to create an example of raising a physically and spiritually mature hero who is ready to overcome all sorts of obstacles.

Job Versus Hercules: Virtue in the Articles of the Byzantine Suda Dictionary of the 10th Century

Introduction. In ancient mythology, the image of Hercules is one of the most popular, and his heroic cult is one of the most common. Having emerged from the “conglomerate of folk tales”, the image of Hercules was actively assimilated by the Greek and then Roman literary tradition. Hercules was a very popular hero among Greek tragic and especially comic poets. In Roman times, the final systematization of the image took place. The key role in this process was played by the works of Apollodorus “The Mythological Library” (2nd century BC), “Pictures” by Philostratus the Younger (2nd century BC) and “Description of Hellas” by Pausanias (2nd century BC). Within the framework of the classical tradition, the image of Hercules in Roman times was finally formed and unambiguous. Hercules is a hero, a demigod, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, who possessed amazing strength, who killed his children (and the children of his brother Iphicles) in an act of madness. He performed 12 labours at the request of Eurystheus. Hercules lived with the Lydian queen Omphale dressing in a woman’s dress. He was poisoned by his wife Deianira, burned at the stake on Mount Eta and ascended to Olympus, where he became the spouse of Hebe. Methods. The hermeneutic methodology, which ensured the correct understanding and interpretation of the text of the Suda dictionary and the ancient texts, on which this “antique” dictionary was based, is used in the article. The toolkit of the hermeneutic circle (pre-understanding and understanding of the text, interpretation of the whole based on knowledge of its parts) made it possible to highlight key elements (plots, signs and symbols) of the philosophical image of Hercules in the entries of the dictionary. Results. We can see a kind of “muscular Christianity”, when the strength of the body still corresponds to moral perfection and the withdrawal from the world does not contradict the active entry into the still polis institutions of urban life in Byzantine cities, among which the most important was the hippodrome and sports competitions. Christian authors actively used traditional sports metaphors and images of wrestling, but filled them with new Christian content. In the dictionary of the Suda, there is a kind of replacement of images that embody the samples of virtue. Hercules always loses to Job. It is indicative that the Christian rhetoric, relying on the philosophical symbolism of the apotheosis of Hercules, using the “sports” terminology of struggle, ignores the developed philosophical symbolism of Hercules, and fights against the mythological “fables” about Hercules. Using cynical and stoic terminology, Christian rhetoric opposes the comedic and dramatic image of Hercules, as Herodore of Heracles did in the 5th century BC. That is, the enemy is borrowed from Christian rhetoric along with philosophical symbols and terminology describing a difficult life full of trials as a virtue.

The Heroic Programme of Sherlock

AbstractRecent years have seen a resurgence of heroic figures and heroizing narratives, pointing to a possible change in contemporary attitudes towards the heroic in contrast to earlier cynicism and irony. While the renewed prominence of heroizations in popular culture has sparked increasing academic interest in the field of cultural studies and has seen wide academic discussion, it has not yet been specifically addressed from the perspective of studies on the role of the heroic in culture. This article outlines the specific strategy the series’ producers and writers followed to recast the archetypal detective, Sherlock Holmes, as a popular hero figure for the present, with a focus on both the discursive as well as the audio-visual elements of this representation. The article makes the argument that figures in twenty-first-century British popular culture reinstall the heroic while they are simultaneously aware of the pitfalls and the ambiguity of sympathy for the hero.

Medialny, święty. Jan Paweł II w poezji współczesnej

John Paul II is not only a writer, but also an extremely popular hero of contemporary literary works. Some poets interestingly problematise the issue of the presence of the Pope’s figure in the media. Tadeusz Dąbrowski’s poem transfers our attention from a single television frame to a reflection on the role of the media in our digital world. In contrast, the lyrics of Roman Bąk first contain a caricatured image of the media and show the Pope-prophet and mystic in the second part of his diptych.

ПРЕДАНИЯ О ВОЙНЕ С АБЛАЕМ-ТАЙШИ В ФОЛЬКЛОРНОМ ЦИКЛЕ МАЗАН-БАТЫРА

The article deals in the historical legends about Mazan-batyr, a popular hero of the Kalmyk folklore, in which he thwarts hostile khan – the rival of the Kalmyk ruler. Although less popular than other types of narratives about that hero, the corresponding texts have been still regularly recorded from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. It appears that by now enough material has been accumulated for an analytical study of such a layer in oral tradition. The main plot of those legends seems to be loosely based on the events of 1671–1672, during when the Khoshut taishi Ablai (Ovla tәәsh) invaded the Kalmyk nomad territories, but was defeated by Ayuka Khan. While there is no evidence that the historical Mazan participated in those events, the folklore accounts often make him one of the central figures in the conflict, usually as the leader of Kalmyk forces who defeats the forces of Ablai, and in a single combat champions over Taishi himself and captures him. This particular discrepancy, as well as the number of other features, is generally viewed as a result of the influence of the oral epic poetry on the legendary narratives. Another interesting feature of the plots is a relatively high degree of historical accuracy, as far as the historical accuracy in folklore studies goes. The most part of the characters in these legends can be correlated with the various figures of Kalmyk history, also a number of the events described in them are confirmed by different written sources, and the tactical techniques used by Mazan-batyr have direct analogues in the traditional warfare of the Mongol people.

Translating to change the nation: The case of José Pedro Varela, a reformer in late 19th century Uruguay

The history of translation in Hispanic America can be segmented into specific historical periods that differ from those found in Europe, namely: encounter and conquest, the colonial period; pre-independence and emancipation; independence and republic; and an ongoing period that started in 1920 (Bastin, 2006). A great deal of work has been done regarding the first three of those periods. Later historical periods, while still receiving some scholarly attention, have not been the focus of as much research (cf. e.g., Montoya, 2014). This paper hopes to provide further insights on translation practices during the Independence and Republic Period by focusing on Jose Pedro Varela, an educational reformer in 19th century Uruguay. Varela spearheaded the charge for educational reform in his native South American country, and he initiated the reforms that would forever change the DNA of public education in Uruguay. Much has been written about him (e.g. Hentschke, 2016), but relatively little has been said of the fact that a number of his most influential writings were, at least in part, translations. In light of this, the present paper will provide a portrait of Varela, highlighting his status as a popular hero whose role as a translator has faded from the public’s view. By pointing out some of his most well-known translations and the role they played in his broader reformist strategies, this paper will also provide some historical perspectives on translation, including how it was conceptualized by some of South America’s key intellectuals during the second half of the 19th century.

Immaginare una nuova nazione: strategie politiche e costruzione dell'identità etnica in Sud Sudan

The African context is an avant-garde geopolitical laboratory, where the inherited state forms of the colonial period are reworked and transformed through political imaginary. The case of South Sudan is particularly interesting: its birth and its development followed a projectuality elaborated during half a century of civil conflict, in which a complex social imaginary was formed. In this article, we want to highlight two closely related aspects. The first is linked to the charismatic figure of John Garang, leader of the SPLA/M. At his death Garang was consecrated as a popular hero and founding figure, becoming a primary reference in the imaginary of the new nation. The second aspect concerns the political strategy of President Salva Kiir, which breaks with the previous nationalist project. In recent years, the formation of an ethnic imaginary transformed local communities into territorial identities, interpreting the socio-political clash through an ethnic category created by colonialism and reproduced during the Sudanese civil wars.

El desarrollo de la figura del héroe en el proceso de transmisión del corrido de Benito Canales

In recent years there has been a growing interest in exploring the field of the Mexican popular ballads called corridos, but there is still the need to clarify the development of the hero in those compositions. My paper focuses on the composition dedicated to Benito Canales, written around 1882. My study examines the structure and development of several versions of the ballad to determine the evolutionary characteristics of this popular hero. In my research I have gathered songs from various sources: anthologies, broadsides, cancioneros and recordings. Essentially, I have brought together ballads from different sources to uncover the ways in which the Benito Canales’ corrido has remained constant, and the ways in which it has acquired uniqueness in form and meaning. My study of this traditional composition attempts to describe the gradual refinement through time of Benito Canales’ image.

At skabe folkehelte

The popular hero is a social type having certain definable roles. The problem of making a hero is that of imputing to a person these roles and of maintaining and building a collective interpretation which has the character of a legend. The destroying of a hero is the casting of him in antiheroic roles. Social types, especially fundamental symbols such as the hero, the villain, and the fool, provide a key to collective psychology because the mass recognizes and readily responds to these symbols.

Care work by convocation: Activist packages on streets to pedagogical packages in schools

This portrait of activist education, drawn from a larger ethnographic study into critical literacies and teacher activism in Oaxaca, Mexico in the wake of a teacher-driven social movement, showcases the celebrating of a popular, contentious national hero, Benito Juárez. In Mexico’s poorest region, where teacher mobilization on the streets and learning strategies in schools intersect, resistance to authoritarianism and instructional compliance with officialdom often overlap. Although critical multicultural approaches advocate for teaching to reduce the achievement gap or to critique extant power structures and practices, this article locates the repositioning of a mainstream historical personage as a pedagogical package, an allegory for justice and equality. Deploying the hero as a pedagogical package, the activist teachers established democratic education, altering formal timetables and curricular maps and humanizing the formal learning spaces in school in the aftermath of intensified conflict. Celebrating a popular hero on his birthday in school is a convocation for community members, parents, teachers and students to gather. The contentious relationships between teachers and the village community softened, particularly among men, and classroom learning and street-level mobilization formed part of a continuum of teacher practice.

The Bond Phenomenon: Theorising a Popular Hero – A Retrospective

This article examines the theoretical questions posed by studying a phenomenon constituted by a range of texts grouped together by virtue of the hero figure they share and jointly construct. “The Bond phenomenon”, it is argued, can best be conceptualised as a phenomenon located within the intertextual relations which have been constructed by (and have comprised the theatre for the operation of) the signifier “James Bond”. This entails studying the individual texts which comprise the “texts of Bond” in the light of the shifting orders of intertextuality within which they have been culturally active during different moments of “the Bond phenomenon”. This, in turn, entails developing methods of analysis whereby changes in the signifying functions attributable to the individual “texts of Bond” can be understood as the product of periodic reorganisations of the internal configuration of that textual set. These issues are explored in relation to the changing constitution of the “texts of Bond” – Fleming’s novels, the Bond films, interviews – at different moments in the political career of Bond as a popular hero. Keywords: James Bond; Ian Fleming; intertextuality; popular hero; mythologies; spy fiction; popular culture.