Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

This is Chapter 2 of Post-Traumatric Culture. It examines fantasies of heroic rescue colored by a sense of inadequacy and even futility in the 1890s. As Ernest Becker maintains, humans are uniquely hunted by awareness of death—I would add, haunted by an awareness of futility. Hence fantasies of heroic rescue, which serve humankind all over the world as a tool for maintaining morale. The present analysis focuses on the image of St George, and teases from it a range of fantasies, from gender differences and control of creaturely motives to intergenerational rivalry.