Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on Contributors -- Hercules, the Modern Man: an Introduction -- Alastair Blanshard and Emma Stafford -- Part 1: The Hero in Literature, Art and Politics -- Part 1.1: Nineteenth- to Twenty-first-century Literature -- 1 Hercules among the Germans -- Will Desmond -- 2 Hercules among the Tractarians: Typological Reading in Isaac Williams' The Christian Scholar -- Clemence Schultze -- 3 'And maybe in your case there wouldn't be a Herakles...': Herakles in C.P. Cavafy and Yiannis Ritsos -- Charilaos N. Michalopoulos -- 4 'The mirror of Greek myth': James McAuley's The Hero and the Hydra -- Rachael White -- 5 Agatha Christie's Twelve Labours of Hercules -- Hugo Koning -- 6 Hercules as Romantic Hero in Twenty-first-century Historical Fiction -- Eleanor OKell -- Part 1.2: A Hero for Children? -- 7 Hercules in Children's Literature: a 'warts and all' Model of Masculinity? -- Owen Hodkinson -- 8 Demigod, God or Monster? Rick Riordan's Hercules -- Frances Foster -- 9 The Incredible Hercules -- Hugo Koning -- Part 1.3: Political Discourse -- 10 Whose Hero? Hercules and His Avatars in Political Discourse -- Paula James -- 11 Reimagining Herakles: a Supporter of Greek Revolution and a Defender of the Greek Crown -- Maria Xanthou and Kleoniki Kyrkopoulou -- 12 'Ο Ηρακλής πήρε το ρόπαλό του' ['Herakles got his club']: the Reception of Herakles in the Modern Greek Press -- Andreas N. Michalopoulos -- 13 A Coruña, Cidade Herculina : Hercules as Founder of Cities -- Maria Seijo-Richart -- 14 Exhibiting Maguire's Herakles: a Dialogue between Old and New Worlds -- Emma Stafford -- Part 2: From Image to Screen -- Part 2.1: Modes of Reception -- 15 Herakles on Chesil Bank: the Archers' Disavowable Classicism and The Small Back Room (1949) -- Stephe Harrop -- 16 'The muscles of Hercules beneath the skin of Antinous': Mapping Herculean Stardom in Film Fan-magazine Discourse -- Michael Williams -- 17 Hercules 'Down Under': Antipodean Experiences of the Hero's Machismo -- Matthew Dillon -- Part 2.2: For the Younger Viewer -- 18 The Mighty Hercules Cartoon Series in Conversation with Steve Reeve's Hercules , Super-hero Comics and 1960s Societal Concerns -- Arlene Allan -- 19 Asterix as the New Hercules: The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1976) -- Eran Almagor -- 20 Disney's Hercules in Context: Mouse-morality for Mini-heroes -- Lisa Maurice -- 21 A Real American Hero: the Superhero-ification of Disney's Hercules -- Sam Summers -- 22 The Convergence of Family Values, Computer-Generated Monsters, and Cleavage in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys -- Jon Solomon -- Part 2.3: Millenial Concerns -- 23 The Labours of Hercules-Sama -- Ayelet Peer -- 24 Hercules' Self-fashioning on Screenː Millennial Concerns and Political Dimensions -- Jean Alvares and Patricia Salzman-Mitchell -- 25 'Through a glass, partly' Reflections of Hercules in Video Games: the Mythodiegesis of Depictions of Hercules in Video Games, and Their Groundings in Medium and Textual Requirements and Contexts -- †Alix Beaumont -- Part 2.4: From Graphic Novel to Blockbuster Film -- 26 'I am Hercules!': Rebooting, Rationalization and Heroism in 2014 -- Joel Gordon -- 27 Warriors, Murderers, Savages: Violence in Steve Moore's Hercules: The Thracian Wars -- Katherine Lu Hsu -- 28 Sex and Gender, Race and Orientalism in Steve Moore's Hercules Comics -- T. H. M. Gellar-Goad -- 29 How the Rock became Rockules: Dwayne Johnson's Star Text in Hercules (2014) -- Monica Cyrino -- Index.

The Modern Hercules explores the reception of the ancient Greek hero Herakles - the Roman Hercules - in western culture from the nineteenth century to the present day. Each chapter considers a particular work or theme in detail, exploring this complex hero's transformations of identity and significance in a wide range of modern media, including literature, visual arts and film. The volume is one of four to be published in the Metaforms series examining the extraordinarily persistent figuring of Herakles-Hercules in western culture, drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines to offer a unique insight into the hero's perennial appeal.

Description based on print version record.