1. Definition and explication

Heroic figures possess an intensified power of attraction, i.e. they affect positively and negatively, they encourage identification and action, they can be intimidating and provoke not only ⟶admiration and adoration but fear, rejection and opposition. We summarise these affective, appellative and polarising effects in the relationship between heroes, their admirers and the public with the term ‘attractive power’.

Heroes highlight the boundaries between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Their very extraordinariness prevents heroes from being reduced to a social or political function.¹Kollmann, Anett: Gepanzerte Empfindsamkeit. Helden in Frauengestalt um 1800. Heidelberg 2004: Winter, 17-34; Immer, Nikolas / van Marwyck, Mareen: “Zur Präsenz und Performanz des Heroischen”. In: Immer, Nikolas / van Marwyck, Mareen (Eds.): Ästhetischer Heroismus. Konzeptionelle und figurative Paradigmen des Helden. Bielefeld 2011: Transcript, 11-28, 19-20. However, it is also insufficient to analyse heroic phenomena solely within the framework of semantics and cultural hermeneutics. Rather, heroic figures can be understood as “symbols of presence”²Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich: Production of Presence. What Meaning Cannot Convey. Stanford 2004: Stanford University Press, xiii-xiv, 17. (see the entry ⟶Hero for more details). As surmised by Gumbrecht, “effects of presence”³Soeffner, Hans-Georg: Symbolische Formung. Eine Soziologie des Symbols und des Rituals. Weilerswist 2010: Velbrück, 17; see also Rehberg, Karl-Siegbert: “Institutionen, Kognitionen und Symbole – Institutionen als symbolische Verkörperungen. Kultursoziologische Anmerkungen zu einem handlungstheoretischen Forschungsprogramm”. In: Maurer, A. / Schmid, M. (Eds.): Neuer Institutionalismus. Zur soziologischen Erklärung von Organisation, Moral und Vertrauen. Frankfurt a. M. 2002: Campus, 39-56. have a direct effect on people and evoke emotional reactions. The phenomenon is, however, just as inadequately defined by the concept of “effects of presence” as it is by the term “appellative power of the heroic” proposed elsewhere.⁴von den Hoff, Ralf et al.: “Heroes – Heroizations – Heroisms: Transformations and Conjunctures from Antiquity to Modernity: Foundational Concepts of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 948”. In: Falkenhayner, Nicole / Meurer, Sebastian / Schlechtriemen, Tobias (Eds.): Analyzing Processes of Heroization. Theories, Methods, Histories (= helden. heroes. héros. E-Journal zu den Kulturen des Heroischen. Special Issue 5 [2019]), 9-16, 12. DOI: 10.6094/helden.heroes.heros./2019/APH/02.

The affective nature of heroic figures is partly due to their paradoxical relationship of proximity and distance to ‘ordinary’ people: heroes possess heightened human abilities and, through their extraordinary nature, significantly exceed human potential. Conversely, due to their very ⟶corporeality and affectivity, they remain akin to humans and thus allow identification. Only in this way can they – in contrast to many other symbolisations – form the model for ⟶heroisms and habitus patterns and call for identification or imitatio heroica. However, heroizations are also characterised by a dynamic of their own that is difficult to predict. Heroic figures polarise; they are never a ‘gestalt-like focal point’ (Plessner) for everyone, but only for certain groups and subgroups.⁵Plessner, Helmuth: Macht und menschliche Natur. Frankfurt a. M. 1981: Suhrkamp, 48.

Contrary to the findings of a “disenchanted”, rationalised world, the persistence of old and new ⟶heroizations and heroisms demonstrate the collective desire for a “re-enchantment”.⁶See Jenkins, Richard: “Disenchantment, Enchantment and Re-Enchantment. Max Weber at the Millennium”. In: Max Weber Studies 1 (2000), 11-32; During, Simon: Modern Enchantments. The Cultural Power of Secular Magic. Cambridge 2002: Harvard University Press; Landy, Joshua / Saler, Michael (Eds.): The Re-Enchantment of the World. Secular Magic in a Rational Age. Stanford 2009: Stanford University Press. Investigating the affective, appealing, and polarising effects of heroic figures remains a relevant and pressing area of study.

2. Attraction vs. charisma/aura

In scholarship, the terms ‘charisma’ and ‘aura’ have often been used as paraphrases for the attractive power of heroes.⁷See Weber, Max: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie. Tübingen 1972 [1921]: Mohr Siebeck, 140; Früchtl, Josef: “Gemacht und dennoch wahr. Die Präsenz des Helden auf der Leinwand”. In: Immer, Nikolas / van Marwyck, Mareen (Eds.): Ästhetischer Heroismus. Konzeptionelle und figurative Paradigmen des Helden. Bielefeld 2011: Transcript, 131-148, 136; Reiling, Jesko: “Der Auftritt des Helden. Zu einem konstitutiven Aspekt des Heroismus”. In: Immer, Nikolas / van Marwyck, Mareen (Eds.): Ästhetischer Heroismus. Konzeptionelle und figurative Paradigmen des Helden. Bielefeld 2011: Transcript, 173-198, 175; Telesko, Werner: Erlösermythen in Kunst und Politik. Zwischen christlicher Tradition und Moderne. Wien 2004: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; Jaeger, C. Stephen: “Aura and Charisma: Two Useful Concepts in Critical Theory”. In: New German Critique 114, 38.3 (2011), 17-34; Jaeger, C. Stephen: Enchantment. On Charisma and the Sublime in the Arts of the West. Philadelphia 2012: University of Pennsylvania Press. However, these terms are only useful to a certain degree. They suggest a particular, inherent quality of heroes, when heroizations and heroisms can really only be explained in relation to and as ascriptions by others. For example, Weber defines the charisma of a hero as a ‘gift’ that allows him to build an affective relationship with his followers.⁸Weber: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 1972 [1921], 140-142. This carries the danger of reducing the heroic to a legitimising basis of leader-follower relationships. Moreover, since Weber cites the hero himself as an example of a charisma bearer, attempts to explain phenomena of the heroic with reference to the concept of charisma turn out to be slightly tautological. At best, Weber’s concept can be made fruitful if it is further developed into a relational model with regard to the communication between hero(es) and the public⁹See Jentges, Erik: Die soziale Magie politischer Repräsentation. Charisma und Anerkennung in der Zivilgesellschaft. Bielefeld 2010: Transcript, 75-80. and if the processes of ascribing charisma are scrutinised instead of charisma itself.¹⁰Vgl. zu Charismatisierung und Stigmatisierung auch Lipp, Wolfgang: Stigma und Charisma. Über soziales Grenzverhalten. Würzburg 2010: Ergon. The same applies to the concept of aura. As merely descriptive categories, aura and charisma have little analytical use.

3. Relational model

In order to explain the attraction of heroic figures with respect to their followers and audiences, it seems helpful to imagine a force field in which the interactions, bonds and resonances between heroic figures and their audiences or adorers can be described as affective, i.e. non-cognitive, emotionally-intensified relationships.¹¹See Shouse, Eric: “Feeling, Emotion, Affect”. In: M/C Journal. A Journal of Media and Culture 8.6 (2005). Online at: http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0512/03-shouse.php (accessed on 04.02.2019); Seyfert, Robert: “Beyond Personal Feelings and Collective Emotions. Toward a Theory of Social Affect”. In: Theory, Culture & Society 29.6 (2012), 27-46. The intense attraction of the heroic, which may also turn into passionate rejection, can thus be analysed on three levels:

1) The attraction emanating from heroic figures can be placed between the poles of being overwhelming and/or appealing. The intensity of the idea of greatness and the extraordinary nature of heroic figures can result in overpowering feelings, which may also turn into fear and rejection. However, heroes can also appeal directly to their followers to take action.

2) Audiences or followers enter into relationships with heroic figures because of their this attraction. Among these relationships are the processes of projection and identification. Through projections, heroic figures are ascribed a set of characteristics: As extraordinary figures, they are associated with values and ideals as well as hopes, desires and fantasies. The heroic role model does not just appeal for action and challenge the followers, it also relieves them of certain actions. Heroic figures do what ordinary people are not able or willing to do. This corresponds to adoration as an emotional type of relationship.¹²See Zink, Veronika: Von der Verehrung. Eine kultursoziologische Untersuchung. Frankfurt a. M. 2014: Campus. Identification, in contrast, presupposes that audiences recognise themselves in heroic figures and can imitate them. Different patterns and nuances of identification are distinguishable.¹³Jauß, Hans Robert: “Interaktionsmuster der Identifikation mit dem Helden”. In: Jauß, Hans Robert: Ästhetische Erfahrung und literarische Hermeneutik. Band 1: Versuche im Feld der ästhetischen Erfahrung. München 1977: Fink, 212-258. Looking up to and identifying with heroic figures can be described as admiration.¹⁴See Zink: Von der Verehrung, 2014. However, heroes can also be pitied or be the cause of ironic distancing. On this level too, mixed and intermediate forms are to be expected.

3) The affective and emotional forces and relations can be scrutinised in their performative, media-related and aesthetic aspects. Among other things, one analyse the gestural, mimical, acoustic, and visual forms of expression, the metaphors of radiance or size, the various effects of media formats, ⟶genres and staging practices that are predisposed to the heroic (for example, the Epic as the epitome of heroic poetry), as well as the forms of narratives and ⟶temporal representations of the heroic. Finally, strategies of authenticity and plausibilisation as well as suggestive or traditionally anchored effects of recognition and repetition (e.g. in ⟶prefigurations) can substantiate affective effects and must therefore be a focus of research on heroic figures.