Antihero

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This article is about the character type. For the 1999 action film, see Anti-hero (film). For the punk band,
see Anti-Heros. For the Marlon Roudette song, see Anti Hero (Brave New World).

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Revisionist Western films commonly have an antihero as the lead character who is morally
ambiguous. Clint Eastwood, pictured here in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), portrayed the Man with No
Name, an archetypical antihero, in the Spaghetti Western Dollars Trilogy.
An antihero, or antiheroine, is a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities such
as idealism, courage, or morality.[1][2][3][4][5] These individuals often possess dark personality traits such as
disagreeableness, dishonesty, and aggressiveness. These characters are usually considered
"conspicuously contrary to an archetypal hero".[6]

Contents
[hide]

1History

2See also

3References

4Further reading

5External links

History[edit]
The antihero archetype can be traced back at least as far as Homer's Thersites.[7]:197198 The concept has
also been identified in classical Greek drama,[8] Roman satire, and Renaissance literature[7]:197198 such

as Don Quixote[8][9] and the picaresque rogue.[10] Although antiheroes may sometimes do the "right thing",
it is more because it serves their self-interest rather than being morally correct.[11]
The term antihero was first used as early as 1714,[5] emerging in works such as Rameau's Nephew in
the 18th century,[7]:199-200 and is also used more broadly to cover Byronic heroes as well.[12]
Literary Romanticism in the 19th century helped popularize new forms of the antihero,[13][14] such as
the Gothic double.[15] The antihero eventually became an established form of social criticism, a
phenomenon often associated with the unnamed protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from
Underground.[7]:201-207 The antihero emerged as a foil to the traditional hero archetype, a process
that Northrop Frye called the fictional "centre of gravity."[16] This movement indicated a literary change in
heroic ethos from feudal aristocrat to urban democrat, as was the shift from epic to ironic narratives.[16]
The antihero became prominent in early 20th century existentialist works such as Franz Kafka's The
Metamorphosis (1915),[17] Jean-Paul Sartre's La Nause (1938) (French for Nausea),[18] and Albert
Camus' L'tranger (1942) (French for The Stranger).[19] The protagonist in these works is an indecisive
central character who drifts through his life and is marked by ennui, angst, and alienation.[20]
The antihero entered American literature in the 1950s and up to the mid-1960s was portrayed as an
alienated figure, unable to communicate.[21]:294-295 The American antihero of the 1950s and 1960s (as
seen in the works of Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, et al.) was typically more proactive than his French
counterpart; with characters such as Kerouac's Dean Moriarty famously taking to the road to vanquish
his ennui.[22] The British version of the antihero emerged in the works of the "angry young men" of the
1950s.[8][23] The collective protests of Sixties counterculture saw the solitary antihero gradually eclipsed
from fictional prominence,[24] though not without subsequent revivals in literary and cinematic form.[21]:295
The antihero also plays a prominent role in such films noir as Double Indemnity (1944) and Night and
the City (1950),[25] in such gangster films as The Godfather (1972) and Goodfellas (1990),[26] and
in Western films, especially the revisionist Western and Spaghetti Western. Lead figures in these
westerns are often morally ambiguous, such as the "Man with No Name", portrayed by Clint
Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the
Ugly (1966)."[27]

See also[edit]
Literature portal

Anti-novel

Anti-fairy tale

List of fictional antiheroes

References[edit]
1.

Jump up^ "American Heritage Dictionary Entry: antihero". Ahdictionary.com.

2013-01-09. Retrieved 2013-10-03.

2.

Jump up^ "anti-hero - definition of anti-hero by Macmillan Dictionary".

Macmillandictionary.com. Retrieved 2013-10-04.

3.

Jump up^ "Antiheroine - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster
Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com. 2012-08-31. Retrieved 2013-10-03.

4.

Jump up^ "anti-hero: definition of anti-hero in Oxford dictionary (British & World
English)". Oxforddictionaries.com. Retrieved 2014-09-06.

5.

^ Jump up to:a b "Antihero - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster
Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com. 2012-08-31. Retrieved 2013-10-03.

6.

Jump up^ Jonason, Peter K.; Webster, Gregory D.; Schmitt, David P.; Li, Norman
P.; Crysel, Laura. "The antihero in popular culture: Life history theory and the dark triad
personality traits.". Review of General Psychology. 16 (2): 192
199. doi:10.1037/a0027914.

7.

^ Jump up to:a b c d Steiner, George (2013). Tolstoy Or Dostoevsky: An Essay in

the Old Criticism. New York: Open Road. ISBN 9781480411913.

8.

^ Jump up to:a b c "antihero (literature) - Encyclopedia Britannica". Britannica.com.

2013-02-14. Retrieved 2014-08-09.

9.
03.

Jump up^ "Literary Terms and Definitions A". Web.cn.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-

10.

Jump up^ Halliwell, Martin (2007). American Culture in the 1950s(Transferred to

Digital Print 2012 ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press. p. 60. ISBN 9780748618859.

11.

Jump up^ Laham, Nicholas (2009). Currents of Comedy on the American

Screen: How Film and Television Deliver Different Laughs for Changing Times. Jefferson,
N.C.: McFarland & Co. p. 51. ISBN 9780786442645.

12.
06.

Jump up^ "Literary Terms and Definitions B". Web.cn.edu. Retrieved 2014-09-

13.

Jump up^ Alsen, Eberhard (2014). The New Romanticism: A Collection of

Critical Essays. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. p. 72. ISBN 9781317776000. Retrieved 20
April 2015.

14.

Jump up^ Simmons, David (2008). The Anti-Hero in the American Novel: From
Joseph Heller to Kurt Vonnegut (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
p. 5. ISBN 9780230612525. Retrieved 20 April 2015.

15.

Jump up^ Lutz, Deborah (2006). The Dangerous Lover: Gothic Villains,
Byronism, and the Nineteenth-century Seduction Narrative. Columbus: Ohio State
University Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780814210345. Retrieved 20 April 2015.

16.

^ Jump up to:a b Frye, Northrop (2002). Anatomy of Criticism. London: Penguin.

p. 34. ISBN 9780141187099.

17.

Jump up^ Barnhart, Joe E. (2005). Dostoevsky's Polyphonic Talent. Lanham:

University Press of America. p. 151. ISBN 9780761830979.

18.

Jump up^ Asong, Linus T. (2012). Psychological Constructs and the Craft of
African Fiction of Yesteryears: Six Studies. Mankon: Langaa Research & Publishing CIG.
p. 76. ISBN 9789956727667.

19.

Jump up^ Gargett, Graham (2004). Heroism and Passion in Literature: Studies
in Honour of Moya Longstaffe. Amsterdam [u.a.]: Rodopi. p. 198. ISBN 9789042016927.

20.

Jump up^ Brereton, Geoffery (1968). A Short History of French Literature.

Penguin Books. pp. 254255.

21.

^ Jump up to:a b Hardt, Michael; Weeks, Kathi (2000). The Jameson Reader(Repr.
ed.). Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. ISBN 9780631202707.

22.

Jump up^ Edelstein, Alan (1996). Everybody is Sitting on the Curb: How and
why America's Heroes Disappeared. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
p. 18. ISBN 9780275953645.

23.

Jump up^ Ousby, Ian (1996). The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Literature in
English. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780521436274.

24.

Jump up^ Edelstein, Alan (1996). Everybody is Sitting on the Curb: How and
why America's Heroes Disappeared. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
p. 1. ISBN 9780275953645.

25.

Jump up^ "A Guide To Film Noir: The Anti Hero". cargocollective.com.
Retrieved 2016-09-11.

26.
11.
27.
11.

Jump up^ "Classic Ten Greatest Anti-Heroes". amc.com. Retrieved 2016-09-

Jump up^ "The Man With No Name". weirdwildrealm.com. Retrieved 2016-09-

Further reading[edit]

Simmons, David (2008). The Anti-Hero in the American Novel: From Heller to Vonnegut.
Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-230-60323-8.