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Papers by Benjamin Van Tourhout
Journal of European popular culture, Oct 1, 2020
While being affected, as the processural embodiment of emotions, is often seen with positive bias... more While being affected, as the processural embodiment of emotions, is often seen with positive bias and as a literary or aesthetic quality, I will argue that affectivity is not restricted to emotive or aesthetical happenings, but that it opens ways to share ideologies through narratives. Due to affects that audiences experience, they can evolve into a state of being morally off-guard due to the profound emotive response to certain dramatic elements. Heroic elements in narratives seem to amplify such uncritical acceptance of both behaviour and ideologies. They allow audiences to embrace ideas they might otherwise reject because of their allegiance to heroized figures. The article elaborates on this specific ideological element of spectatorship and discusses it within the field of performing arts by making reference to the work of, among others, The Panic Movement, Jerzy Grotowski and Romeo Castellucci. I will analyse the strategies employed in performing arts to create affective experiences, such as mirror neurons, transparency, shock effects or alienating effects. The article combines insights from the research field of spectatorship and morality, as affect allows audiences to side with ideologies they would normally oppose. I argue that affect is not only a highway to the heart of audiences but can simultaneously be a silencer for the moral mind.
Journal of Literary Theory, Sep 3, 2018
Fictional heroes have long attracted the attention and emotions of their audiences and readers. M... more Fictional heroes have long attracted the attention and emotions of their audiences and readers. Moreover, such sustained attention or emotional involvement has often taken the form of identification, even empathy. This essay suggests that since 9/11, however, a new cycle of heroism has emerged that has taken its place, namely the hybrid hero (cf. Van Tourhout 2017; 2018). Hybrid heroes have become increasingly popular during the post 9/11 period, offering escapism and reassurance to audiences in difficult times in which clear-cut divisions between good and bad, between right and wrong came under pressure. These characters challenge audiences and creators on moral and narrative levels because of their fluid symbiosis of heroic and villainous features. We find some well-known examples in contemporary TV-series such as Breaking Bad, House of Cards, etc. Hybrid heroes are looking for ways to arouse audiences and are aiming at the complicity of the audience. The most striking example of this complicit nature can be seen in the TV-series House of Cards when Frank Underwood addresses the audience by staring into the camera. Traditional psychological and aesthetic theories on empathy are challenged by the phenomenon of the hybrid hero because empathy is generally conceived in prosocial terms, with most of the current research being geared toward a positive notion of empathy (cf. Johnson 2012; Bal/Veltkamp 2013; Koopman/Hakemulder 2015). Additionally, there has been a prevalent confusion between sympathy and empathy that has impacted our understanding of the perception of such heroes (cf. Jolliffe/Farrington 2006). In fact, one of the reasons for the predominantly positive connotation of empathy in the study of literary reception is that empathy has been narrowly defined as »sympathy and concern for unfortunate others«
Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties, Sep 15, 2018
Der vorliegende Text ist nicht wirklich ein Artikel im strengsten Sinne. Die nächsten Seiten besc... more Der vorliegende Text ist nicht wirklich ein Artikel im strengsten Sinne. Die nächsten Seiten beschreiben den künstlerischen Prozess, der in der Theateraufführung Je suis une étoile über die sich verwischende Figur Maria Bashkirtseff (1860-1884) resultierte. Die Darstellung Je suis une étoile war mein erstes Theaterprojekt (2004), in dem ich Bashkirtseffs Leben und Ambitionen als Instrument verwertete, um mich mit Paradigmen, die m.E. die damalige Gesellschaft und Medien prägten, auseinanderzusetzen. Die nächsten Seiten werden, mit einem Fokus auf dem Akt des "Verschwindens", hin und her bewegen zwischen der Figur von Bashkirtseff und der Darbietung Je suis une étoile bzw. deren Parallelen, Rezeption und Zielen. Ich werde die Beweggründe, Bashkirtseff 's Tagebuch, das beim Schreiben und Proben eine Inspirationsquelle war, und die Beziehung zwischen ihrem Leben und demjenigen zeitgenössischer (sozialer) Medien erörtern.
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Jul 5, 2017
Fictional heroes have been considered as moral exemplars and as entertaining and soothing charact... more Fictional heroes have been considered as moral exemplars and as entertaining and soothing characters. Their creators, however, do not work in a vacuum. Therefore, the emergence of heroic narratives is closely connected to a specific space and time context. In this article, I propose a heroic cycle which consist of three different heroic types creators use to cope with events in reality. This cycle consists of the classic hero, the flawed hero, and the contemporary (post 9/11) type of hero which will be defined and described as a hybrid hero. This hybrid hero became very popular in recent years and just as its counterpart, the franchised hero tries with a specific set of characteristics and moral frameworks, to provide a jouissance for audiences (Barthes, 1975). By doing so, these heroes try to sooth, entertain, or challenge their audiences. Both the hybrid and the franchised hero focus on the reception by audiences although their means and behavior differ on many levels. Although the research and development of the hybrid hero is still at its initial stage, this article elaborates on its construction and conceptualizations as fictional character and as moral challenger in today's fiction. The hybrid hero challenges both audience and creators on empathic, moral, and narrative levels and is a contemporary symbiosis of heroic and villainous features. The text consists of two parts: first, background and contextualization and second, a description of a case study (The Borgia Trilogy, a theatre performance which Van Tourhout created) to clarify the empathic and narrative features of hybrid heroes.
Journal of European popular culture, Oct 1, 2020
While being affected, as the processural embodiment of emotions, is often seen with positive bias... more While being affected, as the processural embodiment of emotions, is often seen with positive bias and as a literary or aesthetic quality, I will argue that affectivity is not restricted to emotive or aesthetical happenings, but that it opens ways to share ideologies through narratives. Due to affects that audiences experience, they can evolve into a state of being morally off-guard due to the profound emotive response to certain dramatic elements. Heroic elements in narratives seem to amplify such uncritical acceptance of both behaviour and ideologies. They allow audiences to embrace ideas they might otherwise reject because of their allegiance to heroized figures. The article elaborates on this specific ideological element of spectatorship and discusses it within the field of performing arts by making reference to the work of, among others, The Panic Movement, Jerzy Grotowski and Romeo Castellucci. I will analyse the strategies employed in performing arts to create affective experiences, such as mirror neurons, transparency, shock effects or alienating effects. The article combines insights from the research field of spectatorship and morality, as affect allows audiences to side with ideologies they would normally oppose. I argue that affect is not only a highway to the heart of audiences but can simultaneously be a silencer for the moral mind.
Journal of Literary Theory, Sep 3, 2018
Fictional heroes have long attracted the attention and emotions of their audiences and readers. M... more Fictional heroes have long attracted the attention and emotions of their audiences and readers. Moreover, such sustained attention or emotional involvement has often taken the form of identification, even empathy. This essay suggests that since 9/11, however, a new cycle of heroism has emerged that has taken its place, namely the hybrid hero (cf. Van Tourhout 2017; 2018). Hybrid heroes have become increasingly popular during the post 9/11 period, offering escapism and reassurance to audiences in difficult times in which clear-cut divisions between good and bad, between right and wrong came under pressure. These characters challenge audiences and creators on moral and narrative levels because of their fluid symbiosis of heroic and villainous features. We find some well-known examples in contemporary TV-series such as Breaking Bad, House of Cards, etc. Hybrid heroes are looking for ways to arouse audiences and are aiming at the complicity of the audience. The most striking example of this complicit nature can be seen in the TV-series House of Cards when Frank Underwood addresses the audience by staring into the camera. Traditional psychological and aesthetic theories on empathy are challenged by the phenomenon of the hybrid hero because empathy is generally conceived in prosocial terms, with most of the current research being geared toward a positive notion of empathy (cf. Johnson 2012; Bal/Veltkamp 2013; Koopman/Hakemulder 2015). Additionally, there has been a prevalent confusion between sympathy and empathy that has impacted our understanding of the perception of such heroes (cf. Jolliffe/Farrington 2006). In fact, one of the reasons for the predominantly positive connotation of empathy in the study of literary reception is that empathy has been narrowly defined as »sympathy and concern for unfortunate others«
Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties, Sep 15, 2018
Der vorliegende Text ist nicht wirklich ein Artikel im strengsten Sinne. Die nächsten Seiten besc... more Der vorliegende Text ist nicht wirklich ein Artikel im strengsten Sinne. Die nächsten Seiten beschreiben den künstlerischen Prozess, der in der Theateraufführung Je suis une étoile über die sich verwischende Figur Maria Bashkirtseff (1860-1884) resultierte. Die Darstellung Je suis une étoile war mein erstes Theaterprojekt (2004), in dem ich Bashkirtseffs Leben und Ambitionen als Instrument verwertete, um mich mit Paradigmen, die m.E. die damalige Gesellschaft und Medien prägten, auseinanderzusetzen. Die nächsten Seiten werden, mit einem Fokus auf dem Akt des "Verschwindens", hin und her bewegen zwischen der Figur von Bashkirtseff und der Darbietung Je suis une étoile bzw. deren Parallelen, Rezeption und Zielen. Ich werde die Beweggründe, Bashkirtseff 's Tagebuch, das beim Schreiben und Proben eine Inspirationsquelle war, und die Beziehung zwischen ihrem Leben und demjenigen zeitgenössischer (sozialer) Medien erörtern.
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Jul 5, 2017
Fictional heroes have been considered as moral exemplars and as entertaining and soothing charact... more Fictional heroes have been considered as moral exemplars and as entertaining and soothing characters. Their creators, however, do not work in a vacuum. Therefore, the emergence of heroic narratives is closely connected to a specific space and time context. In this article, I propose a heroic cycle which consist of three different heroic types creators use to cope with events in reality. This cycle consists of the classic hero, the flawed hero, and the contemporary (post 9/11) type of hero which will be defined and described as a hybrid hero. This hybrid hero became very popular in recent years and just as its counterpart, the franchised hero tries with a specific set of characteristics and moral frameworks, to provide a jouissance for audiences (Barthes, 1975). By doing so, these heroes try to sooth, entertain, or challenge their audiences. Both the hybrid and the franchised hero focus on the reception by audiences although their means and behavior differ on many levels. Although the research and development of the hybrid hero is still at its initial stage, this article elaborates on its construction and conceptualizations as fictional character and as moral challenger in today's fiction. The hybrid hero challenges both audience and creators on empathic, moral, and narrative levels and is a contemporary symbiosis of heroic and villainous features. The text consists of two parts: first, background and contextualization and second, a description of a case study (The Borgia Trilogy, a theatre performance which Van Tourhout created) to clarify the empathic and narrative features of hybrid heroes.