In praise of antiheroes. Figures and themes in modern European li

Through penetrating readings of key works of modern European literature, Victor Brombert shows how a new kind of hero -the antihero- has arisen to replace the toppled heroic model. The author explores the works of Büchner, Gogol, Dostoievsky, Flaubert, Svevo, Hasek, Frisch, Camus and Levi. Coming from diverse cultural and linguistic traditions, the writers all use the figure of the antihero to question handed-down assumptions, to reexamine moral categories, and to raise issues of survival and renewal embodying the spirit of an uneasy age.