The post-heroic society: Identity and victimhood

The first Social Sciences Seminar of the semester will be held September 3rd at 11:00 in room M101 and online.

Markus Meckl, professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, delivers the talk: The post-heroic society: Identity and victimhood.

About the talk:

Narratives are an essential part of our existence, as they shape the sense of our identity. We construct our identity based on stories gathered over our lifetime. The memory created by stories in our childhood provides us with a framework, allowing us to orient ourselves in this world.

In recent years, the way in which we create narratives of our past has changed. In historiography, the term “post-heroic” has been conceptualised to describe this transformation in memory-making. Post-heroism signifies the change that occurs when public recognition is no longer attributed to heroic deeds, but to the victims of conflicts and wars, therefore representing a "shift from heroization to victimization" (Sabrow, 2011: 90).

This shift from heroization to victimization has not only been observed by historians and social scientists, but has entered the realm of memory politics, psychology, literature, and political science. The aim of this lecture is to illustrate this change and to discuss its consequences.

All welcome!