Publish at June 01 2021 Updated October 26 2023
Prolegomena
The actions of ancient heroes such as Gilgamesh, Ulysses and Aeneas, to name just 3, have spanned the millennia and stimulated Western imaginations.
In the case of Gilgamesh, the Sumerian king, it is the quest for his prematurely-deceased friend in the world beyond that forms the framework of the story. He is confronted with the human condition, but tries everything possible to bring his friend back from the dead.
For Ulysses, the search for honor and exploits, the peregrinations to find his homeland, is the driving force. He encounters monsters, cyclops and mermaids as he sails, and uses his wits to get himself out of trouble. His art of cunning became legendary. Learning about the vast world, its twists and turns, the people who work in it, the Mediterranean landscapes that form the energy of history, imbues us with a mythological geography.
For Aeneas, hero of the Iliad, it's the march towards the creation of an empire, that of Rome, the founding of a lineage, the trials to overcome that feed our imaginations.
Each of these heroes undergoes a journey of initiation, a series of trials that first lead them to explore themselves before embarking on a very real voyage. At times, he is confronted by divine judgment and testing ordeals that forge his history and his mind. He is then equipped with spiritual armor that protects him and makes him wiser.
The story's structure reflects Prop and Greimas' actanciel schema , with 6 key elements: the beginning of the quest, the adventures and the end of the quest, the hero, the secondary characters and the opponent. This model is used in more modern stories, such as the detective story Kiriku or the science-fiction saga Luke Skywalker. It's used by marketers to sell us the dream behind the wheel of our car or our future washing machine...
This structure is highly inspiring for training scenarios where the learner hero is offered a path. The tension towards the goal is a powerful learning stimulant that places the learner in the same situation as Ulysses. He's on the move, solving problems. Escape games use the same scripting style, with a succession of twists and turns. The setting and plot force you to project yourself.
Books where you're the hero and you choose the forks in the road give you a slight thrill, and if I'd taken the wrong path. We feel a bit like red riding hoods at risk in the forest. This narrative structure can also be found in serious games. It enables self-directed learning, which is more conducive to motivation than adaptive learning, in which lessons are arrowed and paced according to right or wrong answers.
The anti-hero is an endearing figure who also inspires learning. Perhaps he illustrates the logic of trial and error that allows us to go further. The anti-hero is not a hero in the negative, a figure of evil and destruction, but rather the image of someone we identify with because things often go wrong, or something goes wrong, but it's so much more human and easier to identify with someone imperfect than with a monster of perfection and talent.
Take Gaston Lagaffe, for example, who's always exploring the world and causing disasters. He learns a lot and comes up with genius ideas, but there's a lot of dross and the consequences for himself and others are catastrophic. And yet, despite his failings, he retains a part of humanity in which everyone can recognize themselves, thanks to his clumsiness.
Another anti-hero is Professor Tournesol , invented to assist the heroic reporter Tintin in his scientific endeavors. He's a second-rate, solitary character, a little deaf to the outside world, both literally and figuratively, but whose knowledge and singular place in the world commands respect. Many of the Tintin books are based on this emblematic figure, whose life is somewhat hidden.
In his films (La chèvre, Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire),actor Pierre Richard embodies this figure of the anti-hero. He doesn't understand what's going on, he's caught up in his emotions, in events that don't affect him, when he should be overwhelmed, because he lives in a poetic world, almost his own, with its quirks, its rituals, a certain lightness in the way he sees the world, that doesn't take itself seriously.
Unlike heroes, who are caught up in stories that take them to an elsewhere over which they have little control, anti-heroes seem to escape tragic fate. They enjoy the freedom to learn as they please, according to their own path and sensibility. They seem insignificant, almost secondary characters, but their absence is noticeable.
The journey of the anti-hero, even more than that of the hero, is made up of frailties and flaws. They bring extra meaning through their singular experience. Isn't it said that it's through flaws that light shines?
When it comes to learning, it's by making sense of their experience that anti-heroes teach us, through their life stories, the details, the contexts, the failed moments. The anti-hero makes explicit and possiblethe trial-and-error process he goes through to reach his quintessence.
The pedagogical strategy that corresponds to this orientation gives greater scope to emotions, sensitivity and deep dialogue in caring settings.
When pedagogues design their courses, perhaps they should imagine that we are less hard-boiled, ready to swallow the most difficult trials, than people with areas of fragility. Would this make learning lighter? More accessible?
Illustration - Theodoor van Thulden - Detail from "Ulysse abordé en l'ifle des Cyclopes. Europeana
Sources
The hero's journey http://www.editions-humanis.com/heros-initiatique.php
Rites of passage or initiation https://blogs.mediapart.fr/la-nouvelle-heloise/blog/100112/rites-de-passage-ou-rites-initiatiques
Rites of passage https://www.globalcitizen.org/fr/content/13-amazing-coming-of-age-traditions-from-around-th/
Encyclopédie Universalis - Gilgamesh https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/gilgamesh/
Ekablog Ulysses http://data0.eklablog.com/isailleurs/perso/documents/mythologie/mon%20petit%20quotidien/le%20voyage%20d-ulysse%20dans%20l-odyssee.pdf
Mythologica Aeneas https://mythologica.fr/rome/enee.htm
Gaston Lagaffe http://www.gastonlagaffe.com/
Inrockuptible Top 15 anti-heroes we love
https://www.lesinrocks.com/series/diaporama-10-anti-heros-marque-lhistoire-series-4244-28-09-2013/
Théâtre évangélique - Schéma actanciel https://www.theatreevangelique.com/schema-actanciel/
Psychology - Learning by trial and error https://psychologie.savoir.fr/psychologie-apprentissage-par-essai-et-erreur/
Wikipedia - Pierre Richard https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Richard
Professor Sunflower - https://www.tintin.com/fr/characters/le-professeur-tournesol
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