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[[Image:JosephCampbell.jpg|frame|right| Joseph Campbell]]'''Joseph Campbell''' ([[March 26]], [[1904]] – [[October 31]], [[1987]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[professor]], [[writer]], and [[orator]] best known for his work in the fields of [[comparative mythology]] and [[comparative religion]].
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[[image:Myth_quest_model.gif]]
  
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==Life==
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'''''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''''' (1949) is the seminal work of [[mythology|comparative mythologist]] [[Joseph Campbell]]. In this text Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the [[archetypal]] [[hero]] found in world mythologies and religions.
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Campbell was born and raised in [[New York City]] in an upper middle class [[Roman Catholic]] family. As a child, Campbell became fascinated with [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] [[culture]] when his father took him to see the [[American Museum of Natural History]] in [[New York]]. He soon became versed in numerous aspects of Native American society, primarily in [[Native American mythology|its mythology]]. This led to Campbell's lifelong passion with [[mythology|myth]] and its similar, seemingly cohesive threads among all human cultures. At [[Dartmouth College]] he studied biology and mathematics, but decided that he preferred the humanities and transferred to [[Columbia University]]. He received a B.A. in [[English literature]] in 1925 and M.A. in [[Medieval literature]] in 1927. He was also an accomplished athlete, receiving awards for [[Athletics |track and field]].
 
  
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Campbell next traveled to Europe on a [[Scholarship| fellowship]] provided by Columbia. It was during this time that he met [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]] and became interested in [[Hindu]] philosophy. This was also the time period of the [[Lost Generation]] (the period between the end of [[World War I]] through to the [[Great Depression]]), when enormous intellectual and artistic innovation was occurring in Europe.
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==Overview==
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Campbell used the work of early [[20th century]] theorists to develop his model of the hero (see also: [[structuralism]]), including [[Freud]] (particularly the [[Oedipus complex]]), [[Carl Jung]] ([[archetypal]] figures and the [[collective unconscious]]), and  [[Arnold Van Gennep]] (the three stages of ''The Rites of Passage'', translated by Campbell into ''Departure,'' ''Separation,'' and ''Return''). Campbell also looked to the work of ethnographers [[James Frazer]] and [[Franz Boas]] and psychologist [[Otto Rank]].
  
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Campbell studied [[Old French]] and [[Sanskrit]] at the [[University of Paris]] and the [[University of Munich]]. He learned to speak at least [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], and [[Japanese language|Japanese]] in addition to [[English language|English]]. Campbell began his literary career by editing the posthumous papers of Indologist [[Heinrich Zimmer]].
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Campbell called this journey of the hero,  ''The [[Monomyth]]'' [http://ias.berkeley.edu/orias/hero/]. As a  a noted scholar of [[James Joyce]] (in 1944 he authored the text (with Henry Morton Robinson), ''[[A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake]]'' [http://www.jcf.org/works.php?id=331]), Campbell borrowed this term from Joyce's ''[[Finnegans Wake]]''. In addition, Joyce's ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' was also highly influential in the structuring of ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces.''
  
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After returning from Europe in 1929, Campbell announced to his faculty at Columbia that his time in Europe had broadened his interests and that he wanted to study [[Sanskrit]] and [[Modern art]] in addition to [[Medieval literature]]. When his advisors did not support this, Campbell decided not to go forward with his plans to earn a [[doctorate]] and never returned to a conventional graduate program (Campbell and Cousineau, ''The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on his life and work'', page 54).
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The [[Princeton University Press]] published all editions of this text. Originally issued in 1949 ,  ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' has been reprinted a number of times. Reprints issued after the release of ''[[Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope]]'' in 1977  used the image of [[Mark Hamill]] as [[Luke Skywalker]] on the cover [http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/234.html]. The ''Commemorative Edition'' (published in 2004) has both a new introduction by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., as well as a new cover [http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7803.html].
  
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A few weeks later, the [[Great Depression]] began. Campbell would spend the next five years (1929-1934) trying to figure out what to do with his life (Larsen and Larsen, 2002, p.160) and engaging in independent study.  Campbell discussed this period of his life with Phil Cousineau for the documentary (''[[The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell]]'', 1987, [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093183/]) and book, ''The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on his life and work'' (1990). In ''Chapter 3: The Vision Quest'', Campbell states that he "would divide the day into four four-hour periods, of which I would be reading in three of the four hour periods, and free one of them...I would get nine hours of sheer reading done a day. And this went on for five years straight" (52-53). He traveled to California for a year (1931-32), continuing his independent reading and becoming close friends with the budding writer, [[John Steinbeck]] and his wife Carol (Larsen and Larsen, 2002, chapters 8 and 9). Campbell also maintained his independent reading while teaching for a year in 1933 at the [[Canterbury School]] and also attempted to publish works of fiction (Larsen and Larsen, 2002, p. 214) [http://www.online.pacifica.edu/cgl/Campbellchronology] .
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===Quotes===
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''Preface'':
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* "There are of course differences between the numerous mythologies and religions of mankind, but this is a book about similarities; and once they are understood the differences will be found to be much less great than is popularly (and politically) supposed. My hope is that a comparative elucidation may contribute to the perhaps not-quite desperate cause of those forces that are working in the present world for unification, not in the name of some ecclesiastical or political empire, but in the sense of human mutual understanding" (third edition, p. viii).
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*"As we are told in the [[Vedas]]: 'Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names,' " (third edition, p. viii).
  
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During this time period, Campbell studied the ideas of the [[Swiss]] [[psychiatrist]] [[Carl Jung]], who had been a colleague of [[Sigmund Freud]]. Campbell also edited the first [[Eranos]] conference papers and helped to found [[Princeton University Press|Princeton]]'s [[Bollingen Press]]. Another dissident member of Freud's circle who influenced Campbell was [[Wilhelm Stekel]] (1868 - 1939), who pioneered the application of Freud's conceptions of dreams, fantasies of the [[human mind]], and the unconscious to such fields as [[anthropology]] and [[literature]].
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==Contents==
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'''Prologue: The Monomyth'''
  
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In 1934, Campbell was offered a position as a professor at [[Sarah Lawrence College]] (through the efforts of his former Columbia advisor W.W. Laurence). Campbell married a former student, [[Jean Erdman]], in 1938 and retired from Sarah Lawrence in 1972.
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*1. Myth and Dream
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*2. Tragedy and Comedy
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*3. The Hero and the God
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*4. The World Navel
  
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Campbell died in 1987, in [[Honolulu]], shortly after filming ''[[The Power of Myth]]'' with [[Bill Moyers]].
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'''PART ONE: The Adventure of the Hero'''
  
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==Select works==
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''Chapter I: Departure''  
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[[James Joyce]] was an important influence upon Campbell, particularly the novel, ''[[Ulysses (novel)| Ulysses]]''. Indeed, Campbell's first important book (with Henry Morton Robinson), ''[[A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake]]'' [http://www.jcf.org/works.php?id=331] (1944), was based upon Joyce's final work.
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*1. The Call to Adventure
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*2. Refusal of the Call
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*3. Supernatural Aid
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*4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
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*5. The Belly of the Whale
  
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''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'' (1949) is one of his best-known books: it discusses the [[monomyth]] cycle of the [[hero]]'s journey (a term Campbell borrowed from Joyce's ''[[Finnegans Wake]]''), a pattern found in many [[culture]]s. In addition to [[Freud]] and [[Carl Jung]], this text was also influenced by [[Arnold Van Gennep]]'s 1909 text, ''The Rites of Passage''.
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''Chapter II: Initiation''  
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*1. The Road of Trials
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*2. The Meeting with the Goddess
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*3. Woman as the Temptress
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*4. Atonement with the Father
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*5. Apotheosis
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*6. The Ultimate Boon
  
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His four-volume work ''The Masks of God'' covers mythology around the world from ancient to modern.
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''Chapter III: Return''
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*1. Refusal of the Return
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Campbell's widest popular recognition came with his collaboration with [[Bill Moyers]] on the [[PBS]] series ''[[The Power of Myth]]'', which was first broadcast in 1988, the year after Campbell's death in [[Honolulu]]. The series presented his ideas on archetypes to millions and remains a staple on PBS. A companion book, ''The Power of Myth'', containing expanded transcripts of their conversations, was released shortly afterward.
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*2. The Magic Flight
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*3. Rescue from Without
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*4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
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*5. Master of the Two Worlds
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*6. Freedom to Live
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''Chapter IV: The Keys''
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'''PART TWO: The Cosmogonic Cycle'''
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''Chapter I: Emanations''
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*1. From Psychology to Metaphysics
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*2. The Universal Round
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*3. Out of the Void -Space
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*4. Within Space -Life
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*5. The Breaking of the One into the Manifold
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*6. Folk Stories of Creation
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''Chapter II: The Virgin Birth''
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*1. Mother Universe
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*2. Matrix of Destiny
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*3. Womb of Redemption
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*4. Folk Stories of Virgin Motherhood
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''Chapter III: Transformations of the Hero''
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*1. The Primordial Hero and the Human
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*2. Childhood of the Human Hero
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*3. The Hero as Warrior
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*4. The Hero as Lover
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*5. The Hero as Emperor and as Tyrant
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*6. The Hero as World Redeemer
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*7. The Hero as Saint
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*8. Departure of the Hero
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''Chapter IV: Dissolutions''
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*1. End of the Microcosm
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*2. End of the Macrocosm
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'''Epilogue: Myth and Society'''
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*1. The Shapeshifter
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*2. The Function of Myth, Cult, and Meditation
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*3. The Hero Today
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==Influences==
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===General===
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''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' has influenced a number of artists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers, including [[Bob Dylan]] and [[George Lucas]]. [[Mickey Hart]], [[Bob Weir]] and [[Jerry Garcia]] of the [[Grateful Dead]] had long noted Campbell's influence and agreed to participate in a seminar with him in 1986 entitled ''From Ritual to Rapture'' [http://www.online.pacifica.edu/cgl/Campbellchronology].
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===George Lucas and ''[[Star Wars]]''===
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[[George Lucas]]'s deliberate use of Campbell's theory of the monomyth in the making of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies is well-documented. In addition to the extensive 1987 discussion between Campbell and [[Bill Moyers]] broadcast on [[PBS]] as ''[[The Power of Myth]]'' (filmed at [[Skywalker Ranch]]}, on Campbell's influence on the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films, Lucas, himself, gave an extensive interview for the biography ''Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind'' (Larsen and Larsen, 2002, pages 541-543) on this topic. In this interview, Lucas states that in the early [[1970]]s after completing his early film, ''[[American Graffiti]]'', "it came to me that there really was no modern use of mythology...so that's when I started doing more strenuous research on fairy tales, folklore and mythology, and I started reading Joe's books. Before that I hadn't read any of Joe's books.... It was very eerie because in reading ''The Hero with A Thousand Faces'' I began to realize that my first draft of ''[[Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope|Star Wars]]'' was following classical motifs"(p.541).
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12 years after the making of ''[[The Power of Myth]]'', Moyers and Lucas met again for the 1999 interview, the ''Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bill Moyers'', to further discuss the impact of Campbell's work on Lucas' films [http://www.films.com/id/11017/The_Mythology_of_Star_Wars_with_George_Lucas_and_Bill_Moyers.htm].  In addition, the ''[[National Air and Space Museum]] of the [[Smithsonian Institution]]'' sponsored an exhibit during the late [[1990]]s called ''Star Wars: The Magic of Myth'' which discussed the ways in which Campbell's work shaped the ''Star Wars'' films [http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/StarWars/sw-unit1.htm]. A companion guide of the same name was published in 1997.
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===Chris Vogler, ''The Writer's Journey'', and [[Hollywood]] films ===
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Chris Vogler, a Hollywood film producer and writer, created a now-legendary 7-page company memo, ''A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces'', based on Campbell's work which inspired films such as [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney]]'s 1994 film, ''[[The Lion King]]''. Vogler's memo was later developed into the late [[1990]]s book, ''The Writer's Journey'', which  became the basis for a number of successful Hollywood films and is believed to have been used in the development of the ''[[The Matrix series|Matrix]]'' series.
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==Criticism==
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*Clyde W. Ford (2000), was initially distressed by the opening lines of the prologue to ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''. He eventually returned to the text, in order to synthesize what was of value to him: "Several months passed before I mustered the courage to challenge Campbell again...I was rewarded for my persistence. Campbell's shortsightedness about Africa could not obliterate his immense contributions to mythology, and his omission gave me an opportunity to explore African mythology in a novel and meaningful way," (p. 12).
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*Marc Manganaro (1992), argues that Campbell's theories violate the expectations of [[poststructuralism]]: "Campbell's reading of mythology as text hardly aligns with post-structuralist notions of "world as text," as a realm of constantly shifting signifiers having no provable reference to a ground of signified meaning...on the contrary Campbell's trope of 'text'...functions as a shell that covers the true interior of the myth" (p. 159).
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*Pearson and Pope (1981), claim that Campbell's model discounts the possibility of female heroes: "The great works on the hero--such as Joseph Campbell's ''The Hero With  A Thousand Faces''...all begin with the assumption that the hero is male" (p. vii).
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*[[Novelist]]s [[Kurt Vonnegut]] and [[David Brin]] have been openly critical of his theories.
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*[[Novelist]] [[David Foster Wallace]] in the short story ''Another Pioneer'' (part of the collection, ''Oblivion'', 2004) critiques Campbell's journey of the hero.
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==Trivia==
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*The hero's journey is parodied in two ''[[South Park]]'' episodes:
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**''613:[[The Return of the Lord of the Rings to the Two Towers]]''
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**''614: [[The Death Camp of Tolerance]]'' (through the journey of [[Lemmiwinks]])
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==References==
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* Cousineau, Phil and Stuart L. Brown (eds.). ''[[The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work]]''.  New World Library: 1st New World edition, 2003. ISBN 1577314042.
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* Campbell, Joseph and Henry Morton Robinson. ''[[A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake]]'', 1944.
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*Campbell, Joseph. ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''. Princeton: [[Princeton University Press]], 1949.
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*Ford, Clyde W. ''The Hero with an African Face.'' New York: Bantam, 2000.
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*Henderson, Mary. ''Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. Companion volume to the exhibition at the [[National Air and Space Museum]] of the [[Smithsonian Institution]].'' New York: Bantam, 1997.
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*Larsen, Stephen and Robin Larsen.  ''Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind.'' Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2002.
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*Manganaro, Marc. ''Myth, Rhetoric, and the Voice of Authority: A Critique of Frazer, Eliot, Frye, and Campbell.'' New Haven: Yale, 1992.
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* Moyers, Bill and Joseph Campbell. ''[[The Power of Myth]]''. Anchor: Reissue edition,  1991. ISBN 0385418868
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*Pearson, Carol and Katherine Pope. ''The Female Hero in American and British Literature.'' New York: R.R.  Bowker, 1981.
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*Vogler, Christopher. ''The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, second edition.'' Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 1998.
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==External links==
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* [http://www.webenglishteacher.com/hero.html The Archetype of the Hero's Journey from Web English Teacher]
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* [http://www.jcf.org/works.php?id=104 Second edition from the Joseph Campbell Foundation].
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* [http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist2/hero.htm A Practical Guide to THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES]
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*[http://monomyth.org/index.php?module=article&view=7&MMN_position=4:4 Joseph Campbell's Hero Journey at MonoMyth.org]
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*[http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/pdf/education/starwars/star_wars_teachers_notes.pdf The Hero Cycle as seen in the Star Wars saga]
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*[http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/myth.html Starwars Origins - Joseph Cambell]
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[[Category:1949 books|Hero with a Thousand Faces, The]]
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[[Category:Religious studies books|Hero with a Thousand Faces, The]]
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[[Category:Philosophy books|Hero with a Thousand Faces, The]]
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[[Category:Sociology books|Hero with a Thousand Faces, The]]
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[[Category:Books by Joseph Campbell|Hero with a Thousand Faces, The]]
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[[Category:Star Wars films|Hero with a Thousand Faces, The]]
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[[Category:Mythology|Hero with a Thousand Faces, The]]
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[[no:Helten med ett Tusen Ansikt]]
  
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A recent compilation of many of his ideas is titled ''[[Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor]]''.  The book explains that religion and mythology are actually the same thing and puts religious symbology in its proper mythological context.  One of Campbell's favorite quotes is that "...Mythology is often thought of as 'other peoples' religions and religion can be defined as mis-interpreted mythology."
 
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He explains that by understanding religious symbols not as historical facts but rather as mythological images, the symbols can take on deeper and more-believable meanings for many people.
 
  
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==Campbell's original voice== 
 
  
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Campbell relied on the texts of Jung as an explanation of psychological phenomena, as experienced through [[archetype]]s. But Campbell didn’t agree with [[Carl Jung]] on every issue, and certainly had a very original voice of his own. Campbell didn't believe in [[astrology]] or [[synchronicity]] as Jung had. Campbell's true study and interpretation is in the melding of accepted ideas and [[symbolism]]. His [[iconoclastic]] approach was as original as it was radical. His take on [[religion]] has been compared to [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s idea of [[science]] in his last days, the search for a [[unifying theory]]. Joseph Campbell believed all the [[religion]]s of the world, all the [[ritual]]s and [[deity|deities]], to be “masks” of the same [[transcendent truth]] which is “unknowable.” He claims [[Christianity]] and [[Buddhism]], whether the object is '[[Buddha-nature|buddha-consciousness]]' or '[[Christ]]-[[consciousness]],' to be an elevated awareness above “pairs of opposites,” such as right and wrong. Needless to say, many religious exclusivists find his ideas [[heresy|heretical]]. 
 
  
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"Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names," he often quoted from the [[Vedas]]. Joseph Campbell was fascinated by what he viewed as universal [[sentiment]]s and [[truth]]s, disseminated through cultures which all featured different manifestations. He wanted to show his idea that [[Eastern religions|Eastern]] and [[Western religions]] are the same on a very basic level, and that nobody is right but everyone is searching for the same unknown, and indeed unknowable, answer. His fascination dealt with purely surface level comparisons, which in most cases, completely contradict each other when one examines the deeper meanings or compares literal facts between religions. He began to look [[paradox]]ically at [[moral system]]s as both incorrect and necessary. In one of his interviews, he goes on to discuss how the horrors of the world, such as greed, murder, and racism, are necessary, and should not be rejected, but indeed embraced as part of the world. In this way he melded also the concepts of [[modernism]] and [[postmodernism]], although some interpretations place him as a postmodernist before his time. 
 
  
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In his four-volume series of books "The Masks of God", Campbell tried to summarize the main spiritual threads of the world, in support of his ideas on the "unity of the race of man"; tied in with this was the idea that most of the belief systems of the world had a common geographic ancestry, starting off on the fertile grasslands of Europe in the [[Bronze Age]] and moving to the [[Levant]] and the "[[Fertile Crescent]]" of [[Mesopotamia]] and back to Europe (and the [[Far East]]), where it was mixed with the newly emerging [[Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] ([[Aryan]]) culture.
 
  
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He believed all [[spirituality]] is searching for the same unknown force (which he spoke of as both an immanent and a transcendent force, or that which is both within and without, as opposed to only without) from which everything came, in which everything currently exists, and into which everything will return. He referred to this force as the ''connotation'' of what he called "[[metaphor]]s", the metaphors being the various deities and objects of [[spirituality]] in the world. Any information to the contrary was regarded as "ridiculous" and ignored, so that what remains may be forcibly pushed into this worldview.
 
  
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===Hero mythology and the monomyth===
 
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[[Hero]]es played a crucial role in his comparative studies. In 1949 ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'' set out the idea of the [[monomyth]], a streamlined version of all the archetypal patterns Campbell recognized (Campbell's archivist at the [[Pacifica Graduate Institute]] says he borrowed the term from James Joyce's novel ''[[Finnegans Wake]]''). The monomyth involves the hero receiving a "call to adventure" – to leave the ordinary world which he has psychologically or spiritually outgrown.  After passing "threshold guardians" (often with the aid of a wise mentor or spirit guide) the hero enters a dreamlike world – generally a dark forest, a desert, an underworld or a mysterious island.  After a series of trials in which the hero eventually surpasses his mentor, the hero achieves the object of his quest (often an atonement with the father, a sacred marriage or an apotheosis) before returning to his homeland, bringing with him a spiritual boon.  Campbell wrote that almost all hero myths, throughout history and across cultures, can be shown to contain at least a subset of these patterns. In contemporary popular culture, three film series, ''[[Star Wars]]'', ''[[The Matrix]]'', and ''[[The Lord of the Rings film trilogy|The Lord of the Rings]]'' (along with Tolkien's original ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' novel) hew very closely to Campbell’s archetypal pattern.
 
  
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Heroes were important to Campbell because they conveyed, to him, universal truths about how one should live one's life and about an individual's role in [[society]].
 
  
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==Influence==
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----
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===Influences upon Campbell's works===
 
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Campbell's ideas regarding myth and its relationship to the human psyche are heavily dependent on the work of [[Carl Jung]], whose studies of human psychology, as previously mentioned, heavily influenced Campbell. The Jungian method of dream interpretation, which is heavily reliant on symbolic interpretation, is closely related to Campbell's conception of myth: “Myths are public dreams; dreams are private myths." ("Sukhavati")
 
  
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Campbell's "Follow your bliss" philosophy was influenced by the Sinclair Lewis character Babbitt, who, in the book's last page, laments,  "I've never done a single thing I've wanted to in my whole life! I don't know if I've accomplished anything except just get along. I figure out I've made about a quarter of an inch out of a possible hundred rods.  Well, maybe you'll carry things on further. I don't know.  But I do get a kind of sneaking pleasure out of the fact that you knew what you wanted to do and did it. Well, those folks in there will try to bully you, and tame you down. Tell 'em to go to the devil!  I'll back you.  Take your factory job, if you want to.  Don't be scared of the family.  No, nor all of Zenith.  Nor of yourself, the way I've been.  Go ahead, old man! The world is yours!"
 
  
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Campbell also referenced the Sanskrit concept of "Sat Chit Ananda".  Sat (Being) Chit (Full Consciousness) Ananda (Rapture). He said, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." (''The Power of Myth'')
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'''The hero's journey : summary of the steps'''
  
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Campbell was also highly influenced by the works of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], a factor which resonates throughout many of his works, particularly in '' The Masks of God: Creative Mythology''.
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----
  
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Campbell studied under mythology Professor, [[Heinrich Zimmer]] whilst Campbell was a young student at Columbia.  Zimmer, his teacher, set Campbell on his initial direction in mythology which Campbell followed thru out his life.  Zimmer, taught Campbell that the myths (not a guru or person) could serve as a mentor, in that, the stories provide a psychological roadmap to a universal struggle of finding oneself without the labyrinth of our complex, confusing world.  Zimmer, relied more in the meaning (symbols, metaphore, imagery, etc) of mythhological fairtales for psychological realizations instead of an emphasis on psycho-analysis.  The fact is that Campbell borrowed the interpretative powers of Jung and reshaped them in a Zimmer fashion - interpreting directly from world mythology.  This is an important distiction because it helps to explain why Campbell didn't follow, directly, in Jung's footsteps of applied psychology.
 
  
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===Campbell's influences on others===
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This page summrarizes the brief explanations from every step of the Hero's Journey.  
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[[George Lucas]] was the first [[Hollywood]] filmmaker to openly credit Campbell's influence.  He stated during the release of the first ''[[Star Wars]]'' films during the late [[1970]]s that they were based upon ideas found in ''[[The Hero With a Thousand Faces]]'' and other works of Campbell. Indeed, ''[[The Power of Myth]],'' was filmed at Lucas' ''[[Skywalker Ranch]]''. During these interviews with [[Bill Moyers]], Campbell discusses the way in which Lucas used ''The Hero's Journey'' in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films (IV, V, and VI) to re-invent the mythology for contemporary times. Moyers and Lucas filmed an interview 12 years later in 1999 called the  ''Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bill Moyers'', to further discuss the impact of Campbell's work on Lucas' films [http://www.films.com/id/11017/The_Mythology_of_Star_Wars_with_George_Lucas_and_Bill_Moyers.htm]. In addition, the ''[[National Air and Space Museum]] of the [[Smithsonian Institution]]'' sponsored an exhibit during the late [[1990]]s called ''Star Wars: The Magic of Myth'' which discussed the ways in which Campbell's work shaped the ''Star Wars'' films [http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/StarWars/sw-unit1.htm]. A companion guide of the same name was published in 1997.
 
  
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Other members of the film industry were also inspired by Campbell. [[Chris Vogler]], a Hollywood film producer and writer, created a now-legendary 7-page company memo, ''[[A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces]]'', based on Campbell's work which led to the development of [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney]]'s 1993 film, ''[[The Lion King]]''. Vogler's memo was later developed into the late [[1990]]s book, ''[[The Writer's Journey]]'', which would become the basis for a number of successful Hollywood films.
 
  
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More recently, it has been taken up by computer game companies in search of new ideas and techniques for storyboarding and developing new products. Responding to those who would view his book as mere plagiarism or debasement of Campbell's complex ideas, Vogler has continually warned against viewing his book as a simple "formula" or "recipe" for writing success. Instead, Vogler encourages writers to delve into the world of archetypes and mythic structures as a deep source of enrichment for their own creative work. Creativity in writing emerges during the (conscious and unconscious) processes of deciding which archetypal elements to use, transmute, or discard.
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'''Departure'''
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Musician and composer [[Tori Amos]] has also acknowledged the influence of Campbell in the ideas on mythology and archetypes she employs on her album projects.
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''The Call to Adventure''
  
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==Quotes==
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The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not.
−
* "Mythology is often defined as 'other peoples' religions', religion can be thought of as misinterpreted mythology." He asked people to step back and examine their own religious traditions as mythology, and in doing so, people with doubts as to the literal interpretations of religious texts could get more meaning from the mythological symbolism instead.
+
   
 +
Refusal of the Call
  
−
* “This is an essential experience of any mystical realization. You die to your flesh and are born to your spirit. You identify yourself with the consciousness and life of which your body is but the vehicle. You die to the vehicle and become identified in your consciousness with that of which the vehicle is the carrier. And that is the God.” - Tape 4, Power of Myth.
+
Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.  
  
−
* "The one radiance shines through all things." - Tape 4, Power of Myth.
+
''Supernatural Aid''
  
−
* "Art is the clothing of a revelation" - Transformations of Myth Through Time
+
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known.
 +
The Crossing of the First Threshold
 +
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.
  
−
* “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of life” - this was not an endorsement of masochism, but rather a recognition that life contains hardship and an individual should embrace the experience of being alive by living affirmatively in the face of inevitable sorrow and suffering. This was an echo of a Buddhist teaching that calls for "joyful participation in the sorrows of the world."
+
''The Belly of the Whale''
  
−
* "Follow your bliss." - Campbell believed that at the heart of every hero myth was just that message. After the Power of Myth series aired it became a bit of a catch-phrase. Campbell intended it to mean that one should follow the natural order and cycles of life, though, like [[Aleister Crowley]]'s “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” it has been misunderstood by critics as a call to craven [[libertinism]].
+
The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.  
  
−
* "I don’t have to have faith, I have had experience." - Joseph Campbell explains his maxim to Bill Moyers:
+
'''Inititation'''
  
−
:BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?
+
 +
''The Road of Trials''
  
−
:JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
+
The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.  
  
−
* "Read myths. They teach you that you can turn inward, and you begin to get the message of the symbols. Read other people's myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts -- but if you read the other ones, you begin to get the message."
+
''The Meeting with the Goddess''
 +
 
 +
The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman.
 +
 +
''Woman as the Temptress''
 +
 
 +
At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.  
 +
 
 +
''Atonement with the Father''
 +
 
 +
In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm.
 +
 
 +
''Apotheosis''
 +
 
 +
To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.
 +
 
 +
''The Ultimate Boon''
 +
 
 +
The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.  
 +
 
 +
 
 +
'''Return'''
  
−
==Criticism==
 
−
A few years after his death, some  accused Campbell of anti-Semitism beginning with [[Brendan Gill]]'s  article, "The Faces of Joseph Campbell," published in the ''[[New York Review of Books]]'', Vol. 36, Issue 14, [[September 28]], [[1989]], pages 16-19.  Gill, who identified himself as a friend of Campbell from the Century Club in New York City, notes in the article that he wrote it in reaction to the enormous popularity of ''[[The Power of Myth]]'' series in 1988. Professor of [[religion]], Robert Segal, followed Gill's contention of anti-semitism with the article, "Joseph Campbell on Jews and Judaism" ( ''Religion'' Volume 22, Issue 2, April 1992: 151-170). Later in the article Segal also suggests that this view of Campbell stems, at least in part, from his general dislike of Western religions.
 
  
−
Other scholars disagreed both with Gill's general critiques as well as the accusation of anti-semitism. A few months after Gill's article appeared, the ''[[New York Review of Books]]'', Volume 36, Issue 17, [[November 9]], [[1989]], pages 57-61, published the series of letters "Brendan Gill vs. Defenders of Joseph Campbell" (cover of New York Review), "Joseph Campbell: An Exchange" (title of letter collection). A number of the letters, from former students and  colleagues, argue against the accusations. In particular, Professors Roberta and Peter Markman argue that "we were dismayed because this piece of character assassination was unsupported by any evidence."  Gill, in a response to these letters, continued to uphold his claims.
+
''Refusal of the Return''
  
−
Stephen Larsen and Robin Larsen, the authors of the biography "Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind," (2002) also argued against what they referred to as "the so called anti-Semitic charge" (p.x). They state that: "For the record, Campbell did not belong to any organization that condoned racial or social bias, nor do we know of any other way in which he endorsed such viewpoints. During his lifetime there was no record of such accusations in which he might have publicly betrayed his bigotry or visibly been forced to defend such a position" (p.x).
+
So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?
  
−
A [[National University]] professor named [[Tom Snyder (professor)|Tom Snyder]]  wrote an essay in 1991 entitled "Myth Perceptions: Joseph Campbell's Power of Deceit" [http://answers.org/cultsandreligions/campbell.html] that accused him of launching a single-minded vendetta against [[organized religion]]. 
+
''The Magic Flight''
  
−
Campbell's scholarship has also come under attack; and the American [[novelist]] [[Kurt Vonnegut]] satirized Campbell's views as being excessively baroque by offering his interpretation of the monomyth, called the "In The Hole" theory; loosely defined as "The hero gets into trouble. The hero gets out of trouble."
+
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.
 +
 +
''Rescue from Without''
  
−
==Bibliography of works by Campbell==
+
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon.  
−
===Select Works===
+
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
−
* [[Mahendranath Gupta|  Gupta, Mahendranath]]. ''The Gospel of [[Ramakrishna | Sri Ramakrishna]]'' (1942) (translation from [[Bengali language|Bengali]] by [[Nikhilananda| Swami Nikhilananda]];  Joseph Campbell and Margaret Woodrow Wilson, translation assistants - see preface; foreword by [[Aldous Huxley]])
+
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.
−
* ''A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake'' (1944) (with Henry Morton Robinson)
+
−
* ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'' (1949)
+
''Master of the Two Worlds''
−
*''The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology, vol. I''  (1959)
 
−
* ''The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology, vol. II'' (1962)
 
−
*''The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology, vol III'', (1964)
 
−
*''The Masks of God: Creative Mythology, vol IV'' (1968)
 
−
* ''A Portable Jung'', ed. (1971) 
 
−
* ''[[Myths to Live By]]'' (1972)
 
−
* ''The Way of the Animal Powers: Historical Atlas of World Mythology'' (1983)
 
−
* ''The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion'' (1984)
 
−
* ''Transformations of Myth Through Time'' (1990)
 
−
* ''A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living'' (1995)  (Diane K. Osborn, ed.)
 
−
* ''Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor'' (2001)  (Eugene C. Kennedy, ed.)
 
  
−
===Books based upon interviews with Campbell===
+
In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.  
−
* ''[[The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work]]'' (with Phil Cousineau and Stuart Brown, eds.), 1990.
 
−
* ''[[The Power of Myth]]'' (with [[Bill Moyers]] and [[Betty Sue Flowers]], ed.), 1988
 
  
−
===DVD/Discography===
+
'''Freedom to Live'''
−
* ''[[Mythos (film)]]'' (1997) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389663/]
 
−
* ''[[The Power of Myth |Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth]]'' (1988)
 
−
* ''[[The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell]]'' (1987) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093183/]
 
  
−
==Secondary Sources==
+
Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.
−
===General===
 
−
*Golden, Kenneth L. ''Uses of Comparative Mythology: Essays on the Work of Joseph Campbell''. New York:  Garland, 1992.
 
−
* Harris, Stephen L. and Gloria Platzner. ''Classical Mythology: Images and Insights, third edition.'' Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, Co., 2001.
 
−
*Henderson, Mary. ''Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. Companion volume to the exhibition at the [[National Air and Space Museum]] of the [[Smithsonian Institution]]''. New York: Bantam, 1997.
 
−
* Jones, Steven Swann. ''The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of the Imagination.'' New York: Routledge, 2002.
 
−
*Larsen, Stephen and Robin Larsen.  ''Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind.'' Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2002.
 
−
*Vogler, Christopher. ''The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, second edition.'' Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 1998.
 
  
−
===Books and articles critical of Campbell===
 
−
''Brendan Gill'':
 
−
*[[Brendan Gill]], "The faces of Joseph Campbell" from ''[[New York Review of Books]]'',  Vol. 36, Issue 14, [[September 28]], [[1989]], pages 16-19.
 
−
*"Brendan Gill vs. Defenders of Joseph Campbell-Joseph Campbell: An Exchange."  from ''[[New York Review of Books]]'',  Vol. 36, Issue 17, [[November 9]], [[1989]], pages 57-61.
 
  
−
''General'':
 
−
*Robert Ellwood, ''The Politics of Myth: A Study of [[Carl Jung|C. G. Jung]], [[Mircea Eliade]], and Joseph Campbell''
 
−
* Ford, Clyde W. ''The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa.'' New York: Bantam, 2000.
 
−
*Manganaro, Marc. ''Myth, Rhetoric, and the Voice of Authority: A Critique of Frazer, Eliot, Frye, and Campbell.'' New Haven: Yale, 1992.
 
−
*Daniel C. Noel, editor, '' Paths to the Power of Myth''
 
−
*Pearson, Carol and Katherine Pope. ''The Female Hero in American and British Literature.'' New York: R.R.  Bowker, 1981.
 
−
*[http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2002/04/10/lucas/ "Galactic gasbag" by Steven Hart from Salon.com] (Article contesting [[George Lucas]]'s claim that [[Star Wars]] was influenced by Campbell).
 
−
*[http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notebooks/joseph-campbell.html Cosma Shalizi's rejection of Joseph Campbell]
 
  
−
===Defenses of Campbell===
 
−
*''[http://www.mythandculture.com/weblog/2004/12/joseph-campbell-antisemitism-politics.html  Joseph Campbell & AntiSemitism - The Politics of the Matter]''
 
  
−
==External links==
+
[[image:Voytilla-2.jpg]]
−
{{wikiquote}}
 
−
*[http://www.jcf.org/about_jc.php Biography]
 
−
*[http://www.jcf.org/ Joseph Campbell Foundation]
 
−
*[http://www.online.pacifica.edu/cgl  The Joseph Campbell Library at Pacifica Graduate Institute]
 
−
*[http://www.folkstory.com/campbell/ Center for Story & Symbol]
 
−
*[http://www.sundayherald.com/40821 How myth became the legend of Joseph Campbell] - [[Sunday Herald#Scotland|Sunday Herald]] newspaper
 
−
*[http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/ Myths-Dreams-Symbols - The Psychology of Dreams]
 

Latest revision as of 16:04, 10 June 2006

Myth quest model.gif

The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) is the seminal work of comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. In this text Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies and religions.

Overview

Campbell used the work of early 20th century theorists to develop his model of the hero (see also: structuralism), including Freud (particularly the Oedipus complex), Carl Jung (archetypal figures and the collective unconscious), and Arnold Van Gennep (the three stages of The Rites of Passage, translated by Campbell into Departure, Separation, and Return). Campbell also looked to the work of ethnographers James Frazer and Franz Boas and psychologist Otto Rank.

Campbell called this journey of the hero, The Monomyth [1]. As a a noted scholar of James Joyce (in 1944 he authored the text (with Henry Morton Robinson), A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake [2]), Campbell borrowed this term from Joyce's Finnegans Wake. In addition, Joyce's Ulysses was also highly influential in the structuring of The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

The Princeton University Press published all editions of this text. Originally issued in 1949 , The Hero with a Thousand Faces has been reprinted a number of times. Reprints issued after the release of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1977 used the image of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker on the cover [3]. The Commemorative Edition (published in 2004) has both a new introduction by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., as well as a new cover [4].

Quotes

Preface:

  • "There are of course differences between the numerous mythologies and religions of mankind, but this is a book about similarities; and once they are understood the differences will be found to be much less great than is popularly (and politically) supposed. My hope is that a comparative elucidation may contribute to the perhaps not-quite desperate cause of those forces that are working in the present world for unification, not in the name of some ecclesiastical or political empire, but in the sense of human mutual understanding" (third edition, p. viii).
  • "As we are told in the Vedas: 'Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names,' " (third edition, p. viii).

Contents

Prologue: The Monomyth

  • 1. Myth and Dream
  • 2. Tragedy and Comedy
  • 3. The Hero and the God
  • 4. The World Navel

PART ONE: The Adventure of the Hero

Chapter I: Departure

  • 1. The Call to Adventure
  • 2. Refusal of the Call
  • 3. Supernatural Aid
  • 4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
  • 5. The Belly of the Whale

Chapter II: Initiation

  • 1. The Road of Trials
  • 2. The Meeting with the Goddess
  • 3. Woman as the Temptress
  • 4. Atonement with the Father
  • 5. Apotheosis
  • 6. The Ultimate Boon

Chapter III: Return

  • 1. Refusal of the Return
  • 2. The Magic Flight
  • 3. Rescue from Without
  • 4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
  • 5. Master of the Two Worlds
  • 6. Freedom to Live

Chapter IV: The Keys

PART TWO: The Cosmogonic Cycle

Chapter I: Emanations

  • 1. From Psychology to Metaphysics
  • 2. The Universal Round
  • 3. Out of the Void -Space
  • 4. Within Space -Life
  • 5. The Breaking of the One into the Manifold
  • 6. Folk Stories of Creation

Chapter II: The Virgin Birth

  • 1. Mother Universe
  • 2. Matrix of Destiny
  • 3. Womb of Redemption
  • 4. Folk Stories of Virgin Motherhood

Chapter III: Transformations of the Hero

  • 1. The Primordial Hero and the Human
  • 2. Childhood of the Human Hero
  • 3. The Hero as Warrior
  • 4. The Hero as Lover
  • 5. The Hero as Emperor and as Tyrant
  • 6. The Hero as World Redeemer
  • 7. The Hero as Saint
  • 8. Departure of the Hero

Chapter IV: Dissolutions

  • 1. End of the Microcosm
  • 2. End of the Macrocosm

Epilogue: Myth and Society

  • 1. The Shapeshifter
  • 2. The Function of Myth, Cult, and Meditation
  • 3. The Hero Today

Influences

General

The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced a number of artists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers, including Bob Dylan and George Lucas. Mickey Hart, Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead had long noted Campbell's influence and agreed to participate in a seminar with him in 1986 entitled From Ritual to Rapture [5].

George Lucas and Star Wars

George Lucas's deliberate use of Campbell's theory of the monomyth in the making of the Star Wars movies is well-documented. In addition to the extensive 1987 discussion between Campbell and Bill Moyers broadcast on PBS as The Power of Myth (filmed at Skywalker Ranch}, on Campbell's influence on the Star Wars films, Lucas, himself, gave an extensive interview for the biography Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind (Larsen and Larsen, 2002, pages 541-543) on this topic. In this interview, Lucas states that in the early 1970s after completing his early film, American Graffiti, "it came to me that there really was no modern use of mythology...so that's when I started doing more strenuous research on fairy tales, folklore and mythology, and I started reading Joe's books. Before that I hadn't read any of Joe's books.... It was very eerie because in reading The Hero with A Thousand Faces I began to realize that my first draft of Star Wars was following classical motifs"(p.541).

12 years after the making of The Power of Myth, Moyers and Lucas met again for the 1999 interview, the Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bill Moyers, to further discuss the impact of Campbell's work on Lucas' films [6]. In addition, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution sponsored an exhibit during the late 1990s called Star Wars: The Magic of Myth which discussed the ways in which Campbell's work shaped the Star Wars films [7]. A companion guide of the same name was published in 1997.

Chris Vogler, The Writer's Journey, and Hollywood films

Chris Vogler, a Hollywood film producer and writer, created a now-legendary 7-page company memo, A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces, based on Campbell's work which inspired films such as Disney's 1994 film, The Lion King. Vogler's memo was later developed into the late 1990s book, The Writer's Journey, which became the basis for a number of successful Hollywood films and is believed to have been used in the development of the Matrix series.

Criticism

  • Clyde W. Ford (2000), was initially distressed by the opening lines of the prologue to The Hero with a Thousand Faces. He eventually returned to the text, in order to synthesize what was of value to him: "Several months passed before I mustered the courage to challenge Campbell again...I was rewarded for my persistence. Campbell's shortsightedness about Africa could not obliterate his immense contributions to mythology, and his omission gave me an opportunity to explore African mythology in a novel and meaningful way," (p. 12).
  • Marc Manganaro (1992), argues that Campbell's theories violate the expectations of poststructuralism: "Campbell's reading of mythology as text hardly aligns with post-structuralist notions of "world as text," as a realm of constantly shifting signifiers having no provable reference to a ground of signified meaning...on the contrary Campbell's trope of 'text'...functions as a shell that covers the true interior of the myth" (p. 159).
  • Pearson and Pope (1981), claim that Campbell's model discounts the possibility of female heroes: "The great works on the hero--such as Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces...all begin with the assumption that the hero is male" (p. vii).
  • Novelists Kurt Vonnegut and David Brin have been openly critical of his theories.
  • Novelist David Foster Wallace in the short story Another Pioneer (part of the collection, Oblivion, 2004) critiques Campbell's journey of the hero.

Trivia

References

  • Cousineau, Phil and Stuart L. Brown (eds.). The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work. New World Library: 1st New World edition, 2003. ISBN 1577314042.
  • Campbell, Joseph and Henry Morton Robinson. A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, 1944.
  • Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949.
  • Ford, Clyde W. The Hero with an African Face. New York: Bantam, 2000.
  • Henderson, Mary. Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. Companion volume to the exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. New York: Bantam, 1997.
  • Larsen, Stephen and Robin Larsen. Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2002.
  • Manganaro, Marc. Myth, Rhetoric, and the Voice of Authority: A Critique of Frazer, Eliot, Frye, and Campbell. New Haven: Yale, 1992.
  • Moyers, Bill and Joseph Campbell. The Power of Myth. Anchor: Reissue edition, 1991. ISBN 0385418868
  • Pearson, Carol and Katherine Pope. The Female Hero in American and British Literature. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1981.
  • Vogler, Christopher. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, second edition. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 1998.

External links

no:Helten med ett Tusen Ansikt






The hero's journey : summary of the steps


This page summrarizes the brief explanations from every step of the Hero's Journey.


Departure


The Call to Adventure

The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not.

Refusal of the Call

Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.

Supernatural Aid

Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known. The Crossing of the First Threshold This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.

The Belly of the Whale

The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.

Inititation


The Road of Trials

The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.

The Meeting with the Goddess

The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman.

Woman as the Temptress

At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.

Atonement with the Father

In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm.

Apotheosis

To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.

The Ultimate Boon

The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.


Return


Refusal of the Return

So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?

The Magic Flight

Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.

Rescue from Without

Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon. The Crossing of the Return Threshold The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.

Master of the Two Worlds

In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.

Freedom to Live

Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.



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