Marginal Heroes at the Frontier: Carnivàle

Abstract

Some contemporary heroes are tragic, strange marginal heroes. I am interested inreflecting on some of the contemporary cultural representations of the “hero” that areaway from some of the canonic models; those are complex and non-linear heroes, withoutclear points of reference. Some intellectuals assume that we are living in “post” times: aclosing period, lacking any ideals. For them, we have turned the corner of History andeverything has been left behind. It seems there is no place for courage; and a hero is aman who behaves bravely. However some other creators ask themselves about humanactions, about how a man should behave, about excellence; to sum up, they wonderabout ethical dilemmas. Within this context, the audio-visual reflection about humanactions, a reflection about the contemporary hero in the TV series “Carnivàle” will bedeveloped. The approach will focus on the hero’s route by the great frontier, the onebetween life and death, good and evil; contemporary hero peers into the essentialboundary, the abyss of existence, and the spaces of pain, violence and evil. Within thisframework, we will also approach the reflection about America’s foundations and projects; the American dream and the American nightmare. The theoretical ground for this study isthe “philosophy of the limit” by Eugenio Trías. Based on that, a reflection about the TV seriesis developed and also a study about its mythological and philosophical foundations. Tosum up, an approach to the idea of the hero based on Trías thought about the humanbeing as a border being.