This article takes a sociological perspective on the phenomenon of national myth making in collective memory. It develops an original theoretical concept, the ghost hero. The ghost hero, we posit, is a reinvented historical actor who, despite being implicated in acts of moral or legal turpitude, is elevated and venerated within national communities. In building a theoretical frame, we use two historical cases: Latvian aviator and Nazi-era collaborator Herberts Cukurs, and Marshall Ion Antonescu, pro-fascist leader of Romania in World War II. Our concept draws on the microsociological theory of Erving Goffman to characterize a historical narrative as the presentation of a national “self” and the structural functionalist perspective to examine the sociological functions of the ghost hero for state and society. We suggest that the ghost hero concept could extend beyond these cases and regions to analyze the heroization of historical figures implicated in atrocities.

中文翻译：

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鬼英雄：过去民族叙事中的遗忘和记忆

本文从社会学角度研究集体记忆中的民族神话现象。它发展了一个原始的理论概念，即鬼英雄。我们假定，幽灵英雄是一位经过改造的历史演员，尽管他被卷入了道德或法律的堕落行为，但在国家社区中得到了提升和崇敬。在构建理论框架时，我们使用了两个历史案例：拉脱维亚飞行员和纳粹时代的合作者 Herberts Cukurs，以及二战中罗马尼亚的亲法西斯领导人 Marshall Ion Antonescu。我们的概念借鉴了欧文戈夫曼的微观社会学理论，将历史叙事描述为国家“自我”的呈现，并利用结构功能主义的视角来检验鬼英雄对国家和社会的社会学功能。