Konstruktion und Dekonstruktion des Heroischen in Le Taureau de Mazargues von R.-M. Rolland (1931)

Abstract

This article examines the rugby novel Le Taureau de Mazargues by R.-M. Rolland, published in 1931. The aim is to show that the protagonist Jean is portrayed as a sports hero, whose heroic status, however, is fundamentally marked by his ambivalence. By serving the constitutional conditions of the heroic and at the same time problematizing them the narrative constructs this broken heroic figure. The categories “hero makers”, “audience“, “heroic deed” and “heroization” are the focus of the investigation. The article proposes to read Rolland's novel as a story of alienation under the sign of heroism.