Stand and deliver!(Thinking Politically)

• Author: Burke, R.

Sometimes, the most important revolutionary activity takes place in the imagination. Revolutions are made when what Cornelius Castoriadis termed the "Social Imaginary" creates a new image of itself and the world. Surrealists such as Andre Breton have explored the issue of myth, in the sense of a story which connects individuals and communities with a wider reality, and its role in revolutionary change. Without an appeal to the mythic imagination, evidence and rational argument remain impotent to effect actual change. Where then are the authentic revolutionary myths to be found? In his new book Robin Hood; People's Outlaw and Forest Hero; A Graphic Guide Paul Buhle shows us at least one such myth that has been hiding in plain sight, unrecognized.

Buhle places the origin of the Robin Hood legend in an historical context of religious heretics, peasant uprisings and ancient pagan symbolism. That history goes on to popular expression through song, storytelling, and finally movies and television series, such as the recent BBC incarnation which ran between 2006-2009. At the heart of this is the story of a hero and his band of comrades who fight unjust authority and redistribute the wealth. Long before Che Guervara, Robin Hood was the archetypal revolutionary guerrilla.

The first known written mention of Robin Hood is in the poem Piers Plowman, which appeared in the 14th century. Buhle does not focus on the historical basis of the Robin Hood legend but examines the themes that have become interwoven with the legend. He presents the Robin Hood stories as embodying the urge to revolt of the oppressed classes in medieval England. Like Robert Graves Buhle seems to think that Robin is an archaic survival of the Green Man, the Celtic Lord of the Forest, who appears in medieval cathedrals in the form of a face peering out from amidst foliage. The social imagination, it seems, retains forms from earlier, now suppressed episodes of history. This material becomes reworked in order to suit the needs of the time, in which themes which aim at the overthrow of oppressive social orders grow in silence, away from "official" culture.

One of the more enlightening aspects of Buhle's book is the way in which he demonstrates that variations on the Robin Hood legend that appear in recent depictions actually repeat earlier developments in the legend's growth. In both the 1996 movie starring Kevin Costner, as well as the 2006-2009 BBC version, the characters include a...