CIMS Member Robert Hensley-King Successfully Defended His Doctoral Dissertation

On 20^th June 2023, CIMS affiliated member Robert Hensley-King successfully defended his dissertation “Liminal Saints and Sinners: A Close Analysis of the New Hollywood Antihero, 1967-1977.” The examination board was chaired by Prof. Dr. Sarah Van Leuven and included external members Peter Krämer (University of East Anglia, UK) and Prof. Dr. Philippe Meers (University of Antwerp), as well as Prof. Dr. Sofie Van Bauwel and Prof. Dr. Gertjan Willems (both Ghent University, CIMS). Robert now lives in Toronto and people unable to travel to Ghent watched the defense online.

Supervised by Prof. Dr. Daniel Biltereyst (Ugent, CIMS), Robert’s dissertation presents the findings of his doctoral research on the New Hollywood antihero, 1967-1977. It asks and answers the question of whether the New Hollywood antihero exists, and evaluates the significance of this figure. From an initial quantitative analysis, it became obvious that the New Hollywood antihero was overwhelmingly male, and generally troubled. An overview of the antihero as a liminal figure in times of flux in the history of Western literature, drama, opera, and philosophy as well as Classical Hollywood shows that this is a recurrent trend. Combining these observations with a series of qualitative analyses that focused on gender, politics, religion, class and ethnicity, enabled Robert to make sense of these troubled men. Moreover, his analyses show how they emerged during a period of change and innovation in Hollywood to reflect the concerns of a world in social, political, and economic flux. The conclusion brings together his findings to show that while there is no single archetype of an antihero there are commonalities among them. This dissertation shows that the New Hollywood antihero is a broken, liminal figure who is hurt and hurts others in turn. It also shows that he embodies significant truths about the broken worlds from which he emerged.