Hero’s Journey
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.
Contents
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
- The hero's journey is parodied in two South Park episodes:
- 613:The Return of the Lord of the Rings to the Two Towers
- 614: The Death Camp of Tolerance (through the journey of Lemmiwinks)
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.
