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- Title
The Age of Heroes in Historiography: The Example of Prince Eugene of Savoy.
- Authors
Šimetin Šegvić, Filip; Branđolica, Tomislav
- Abstract
Almost every national historiography has at one time or another emphasized a certain era dominated by the alleged extraordinary feats of particular individuals. Modern nationalists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries often sought support for their founding myths in their histories, exploiting imagery of heroic eras and their heroes for the needs of the present. The work of historians played an integral part of this mythmaking process. The German word Heldenzeitalter [Age of Heroes] is a concept with exactly such strong historiographical dimension. The term is not precise. It has variously been used to denote the mythic era of German sagas, the time of the Völkerwanderungen [migrations of peoples], and the Ostrogoth king Theodoric (sixth century). The same concept of an “age of heroes” is also fundamental to understanding Austrian historiography. This age constitutes a basic element of the Austrian national idea, and as with the other applications of the term “Age of Heroes,” the Austrian version, which was largely a nineteenth-century historiographical construct, was also fed by epics and poetry and myth making. The ruling Habsburg dynasty also actively supported the design of an Austrian Age of Heroes, at whose center could be found the figure of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736).
- Subjects
EUGENE, of Savoy, Prince of Savoy, 1663-1736; HISTORY &; politics; NATIONALISM &; historiography; HEROES; HISTORICAL errors; PRINCES; AUSTRIAN history, 1519-1740; BIOGRAPHY (Literary form)
- Publication
Austrian History Yearbook, 2013, Vol 44, p211
- ISSN
0067-2378
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0067237813000131