I WANT a Hero: Don Juan’s Shipwreck and Byron’s WANTED Hero

\nThe study aims to explore the complex motif of the hero in Don Juan, using Canto II as a focal point. In dialogue with traditional heroes, Byron provides a comprehensive reflection on the creation of heroes, suggesting that they are instantly devalued when conceived as either epic or recorded heroes. Both models adhere to the same logic, which is encapsulated in the rallying cry "I want a hero." In the epic-hero model, "I" signifies the poet and the nation's manipulative propaganda; in the recorded-hero model, it has evolved into the desire of the desiring-machine. The study posits that building upon the remnants of the two models he opposes, Byron proposes his own model of Don Juan—a hero genuinely seasick amid the shipwreck, serving as an embodiment of poets in a state of ennui within the 19th-century commodity culture. Through Juan, Byron offers a viable solution for literature within the commercial society.\n