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 Cover of the third printing, 1972 | |
| Author | Joseph Campbell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Mythology |
| Published |
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| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover andpaperback) |
| ISBN | 978-1-57731-593-3 |
| 201/.3 22 | |
| LC Class | BL313 .C28 2008 |
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (first published in 1949) is a work ofcomparative mythology byJoseph Campbell, in which the author discusses his theory of the mythological structure of the journey of thearchetypalhero found in worldmyths.
Since the publication ofThe Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell's theory has been consciously applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. FilmmakerGeorge Lucas acknowledged Campbell's theory in mythology, and its influence on theStar Wars films.[1]
TheJoseph Campbell Foundation andNew World Library issued a new edition ofThe Hero with a Thousand Faces in July 2008 as part of theCollected Works of Joseph Campbell series of books, audio and video recordings. In 2011,Time named it among the 100 most influential books written in English since 1923.[2]
Campbell explores the theory that mythological narratives frequently share a fundamental structure. The similarities of these myths brought Campbell to write his book in which he details the structure of themonomyth. He calls the motif of the archetypal narrative, "the hero's adventure". In a well-known passage from the introduction toThe Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarizes the monomyth:
Ahero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.[3]
In laying out the monomyth, Campbell describes a number of stages or steps along this journey. "The hero's adventure" begins in theordinary world. He must depart from theordinary world, when he receives acall to adventure. With the help of amentor, the hero will cross aguarded threshold, leading him to a supernatural world, where familiar laws and order do not apply. There, the hero will embark on aroad of trials, where he is tested along the way. The archetypal hero is sometimes assisted byallies. As the hero faces theordeal, he encounters the greatest challenge of the journey. Upon rising to the challenge, the hero will receive a reward, orboon. Campbell's theory of the monomyth continues with the inclusion of a metaphoricaldeath andresurrection. The hero must then decide to return with thisboon to theordinary world. The hero then faces more trials onthe road back. Upon the hero's return, the boon or gift may be used to improve the hero's ordinary world, in what Campbell calls, theapplication of the boon.
While many myths do seem to follow the outline of Campbell's monomyth, there is some variance in the inclusion and sequence of some of the stages. Still, there is an abundance of literature and folklore that follows the motif of the archetypal narrative, paralleling the more general steps of "Departure" (sometimes calledSeparation), "Initiation", and "Return". "Departure" deals with the hero venturing forth on the quest, including thecall to adventure. "Initiation" refers to the hero's adventures that will test him along the way. The last part of the monomyth is the "Return", which follows the hero's journey home.
Campbell studied religious, spiritual, mythological and literary classics including the stories ofOsiris,Prometheus, theBuddha,Moses,Mohammed, andJesus. The book cites the similarities of the stories, and references them as he breaks down the structure of the monomyth.
The book includes a discussion of "the hero's journey" by using theFreudian concepts popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Campbell's theory incorporates a mixture ofJungian archetypes,unconscious forces, andArnold van Gennep's structuring ofrites of passage rituals to provide some illumination.[4] "The hero's journey" continues to influence artists and intellectuals in contemporary arts and culture, suggesting a basic usefulness for Campbell's insights beyond mid-20th century forms of analysis.
Campbell used the work of early-20th-century theorists to develop his model of the hero (see alsostructuralism), includingFreud (particularly theOedipus complex),Carl Jung (archetypal figures and thecollective unconscious), andArnold Van Gennep. Van Gennep contributed the concept of there being three stages ofThe Rites of Passage. Campbell translated this intoSeparation,Initiation andReturn. He also looked to the work of psychoanalystOtto Rank and ethnographersJames George Frazer andFranz Boas.
Campbell was a noted scholar ofJames Joyce, having co-authoredA Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake withHenry Morton Robinson. Campbell borrowed the termmonomyth from Joyce'sFinnegans Wake. In addition, Joyce'sUlysses was also highly influential in the structuring of the archetypal motif.
The book was originally published by theBollingen Foundation throughPantheon Press as the seventeenth title in the Bollingen Series. This series was taken over byPrinceton University Press, who published the book through 2006. Originally issued in 1949 and revised by Campbell in 1968,The Hero with a Thousand Faces has been reprinted a number of times. Reprints issued after the release ofStar Wars in 1977 used the image ofMark Hamill asLuke Skywalker on the cover. Princeton University Press issued a commemorative printing of the second edition in 2004 on the occasion of the joint centennial of Campbell's birth and the Press's founding with an added foreword byClarissa Pinkola Estés.
A third edition, compiled by theJoseph Campbell Foundation and published byNew World Library, was released as the twelfth title in theCollected Works of Joseph Campbell series in July 2008.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces has been translated into over twenty languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (simplified andtraditional), Turkish, Dutch, Greek, Danish, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Czech, Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian, Russian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Hebrew, and has sold well over a million copies worldwide.[5]
InPathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation, a book drawn from Campbell's late lectures and workshops, he says about artists and the monomyth:
Artists are magical helpers. Evoking symbols and motifs that connect us to our deeper selves, they can help us along the heroic journey of our own lives. [...]
The artist is meant to put the objects of this world together in such a way that through them you will experience that light, that radiance which is the light of our consciousness and which all things both hide and, when properly looked upon, reveal.The hero's journey is one of the universal patterns through which that radiance shows brightly. What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There's always the possibility of a fiasco.
But there's also the possibility of bliss.
— Joseph Campbell,[6]
The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced a number of artists, filmmakers, musicians, producers and poets. Some of these figures includeBob Dylan,George Lucas,Mark Burnett andJim Morrison. Additionally,Mickey Hart,Bob Weir, andJerry Garcia of theGrateful Dead had long noted Campbell's influence and participated in a seminar with Campbell in 1986, entitled "From Ritual to Rapture".[7]
Stanley Kubrick introducedArthur C. Clarke to the book during the writing of2001: A Space Odyssey.[8]
George Lucas' deliberate use of Campbell's theory of the monomyth in the making of theStar Wars movies is well documented. On the DVD release of the famous colloquy between Campbell andBill Moyers, filmed at Lucas'Skywalker Ranch and broadcast in 1988 onPBS asThe Power of Myth, Campbell and Moyers discussed Lucas's use ofThe Hero with a Thousand Faces in making his films.[9] Lucas himself discussed how Campbell's work affected his approach to storytelling and film-making.[10]
Jenova Chen, lead designer atthatgamecompany, also citesThe Hero's Journey as the primary inspiration for thePlayStation 3 gameJourney (2012).[11]
Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood film producer and writer, wrote a memo forDisney Studios on the use ofThe Hero with a Thousand Faces as a guide for scriptwriters; this memo influenced the creation of such films asBeauty and the Beast (1991),Aladdin (1992), andThe Lion King (1994). Vogler later expanded the memo and published it as the bookThe Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers, which became the inspiration for a number of successful Hollywood films and is believed to have been used in the development of theMatrix series.[citation needed]
NovelistRichard Adams acknowledges a debt to Campbell's work, and specifically to the concept of the monomyth.[12] In his best known work,Watership Down, Adams uses extracts fromThe Hero with a Thousand Faces as chapter epigrams.[13]
AuthorNeil Gaiman, whose work is frequently seen as exemplifying the monomyth structure,[14] says that he startedThe Hero with a Thousand Faces but refused to finish it:
"I think I got about half way throughThe Hero with a Thousand Faces and found myself thinking if this is true—I don't want to know. I really would rather not know this stuff. I’d rather do it because it's true and because I accidentally wind up creating something that falls into this pattern than be told what the pattern is."[15]
Many scholars and reviewers have noted how closelyJ. K. Rowling's popularHarry Potter books hewed to the monomyth schema.[16]
Dan Harmon, the creator of the TV showsCommunity andRick and Morty, has used the monomyth as inspiration for his work.[17]
David R. Dunham reviewedThe Hero with a Thousand Faces forDifferent Worlds magazine and stated that "The Hero with a Thousand Faces is not an easy book to read. While it isn't overly dry, it isn't exactly entertaining, either. It took me three starts to get through it. This may be due to the fact that I don't usually read scholarly books for entertainment."[18]
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