An Interdisciplinary Study of Poetry and Cinema: The Analysis of the Image of the British Soldier/Hero in the Orient with a Postcolonial Approach

Heroes are created by the images that we make of them. In this article, with an interdisciplinary approach and with regard to the postcolonial theories, the researchers try to analyze the images of the soldier/hero circulating in the verbal and visual media of the 19th and the 20th centuries. Thomas Edward Lawrence in the movie Lawrence of Arabia directed by David Lean has changed into a 'heroic knight,' not unlike Don Quixote. He is different from the Victorian heroes: while the Victorian soldier/heroes were flat characters and in sharp contrast with their oriental other, Lawrence, the twentieth century British hero, has a complicated interaction with the oriental subalterns. Lawrence is a developing character that maintains the differences and at the same mingles with Arabs and is inspired by their energy and liveliness. The dynamics of the soldier/hero's character development has been analyzed in this article.