Joseph Campbell

Philosophers of education have argued that in order for Environmental Education’s goals to succeed, students must form bonds and place attachments with nature. Some argue that immersive experiences in nature will be sufficient to form such attachments. However, this may not be enough, requiring other means of motivating them for environmental stewardship. Here, I explore the role the imagination could play for helping (re)enchant students’ perception of themselves-in-relationship-with nature which could support the work these educators are already doing. I explore philosophical, psychological, and pedagogical domains to begin developing a holistic vision of what imagination could contribute for human-environmental flourishing. Philosophically, I build from Martha Nussbaum’s work that stories imaginatively shape our understanding of ourselves and the world, arguing that story—namely, myth—may have a unique power to enchant student’s moral and ethical imaginations. I attempt to synthesise Michael Bonnett’s rich ‘primordial’ phenomenology with what some mythologists identify as ‘implicit myth’—both of which are drawing attention to the human-environmental interrelationship. Psychologically, I posit that if myth of this kind can develop a human-environmental imagination in students, it may serve to create conditions to motivate students to act for environmental stewardship. Pedagogically, I close by identifying authors who seem to embody this primordial and mythic way of being in the world, arguing that studying their writings may help educators and students cultivate this human-environmental imagination. I draw particular attention to Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poetry for exemplary inspiration and guidance.

The opening stage direction in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953) is a simple one-line sentence: ‘A country road. A tree’ (2006 1). This ostensibly situates the protagonists in the midst of a journey, yet famously, it is one that seems without a clear purpose, progress or end. The country road where Gogo and Didi find themselves is a circular one. The protagonists are forever unable to move beyond their present state, trapped in an uncertain journey that appears to lead nowhere. In this way, Beckett reappraises the travel motif albeit producing a reversal of its conventional significance, in an effort to challenge the teleology of this archetype. Many absurdist playwrights and prose authors of the twentieth century echo Beckett’s efforts through the use of a variety of circular narrative forms. Aiming to destabilise the logic and World-view implicit in the linear teleological narrative structure of the hero’s quest (as theorised by Joseph Campbell), these texts exemplify that in literature, as in any journey, it is the journey itself, rather than its aim or end (telos), that is most important. Moreover, the circular form of these texts explicitly avoids ‘the end’ degrading ‘the way into a means’, as Beckett himself writes in Murphy. This paper will look at a range of European circular narratives, both in drama and prose, in order to explore the ways in which they challenge the teleology of the journey, by turning the path of their roads into circular ones. The analysis will refer to works such as Raymond Queneau’s The Bark Tree (1933), Fernando Arrabal’s Fando and Lis (1957), and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s The Erasers (1953) and In the Labyrinth (1959), as well as Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

This paper aims to address the mythopoeic aspect of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, so as to disclose the elements of American cultural identity embedded in the novel. It is an attempt to analyse its legends, myths, folklore, popular culture figures, intertwined with Old World mythology, assessing their viability as modern myths, through the lens of formalist and structuralist reading.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) has remained the most widely
discussed of his novels in the five decades since its publication. However, the
volume of critical work produced on it far outweighs the unique lines of
thought investigated. The critiques have mostly been limited to – diagnoses
of Billy Pilgrim’s mental disorder, locating the sources of the diagnosed
ailments, examinations of Vonnegut’s intended philosophy, comparisons of
the novel to other anti-war works, and investigations of the elements of
humor and science fiction in the novel. This article attempts a close reading
of the novel along the lines of the hero quest, or monomyth, as chronicled in
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) by Joseph Campbell. The article
disentangles the novel to release the inherent quest narrative from its nonlinear structure and reinterprets it in terms of Campbell’s quest stages to
reveal an uncanny resemblance to the mythical hero’s journey. The nature of
the journey and the hero’s traits, and the departures observed in Vonnegut’s
monomyth from Campbell’s determine the relevance and implications of
Billy’s quest and warrant the need to coin his quest anew, namely the antimonomyth

This paper discusses the impact of the "monomyth" paradigm of Joseph Campbell, especially as it is presented in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949), and reviews a variety of reactions to it, including that of feminist critics.  Lastly, it applies the most promising feminist critiques to an analysis of contemporary novels by women, most prominently Margaret Atwood.'s "Surfacing" (1973).

The translation of The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler, and the practically simultaneous publication of Story, by Robert McKee, revived the debate about books on film and TV scripts, in which guides, descriptive studies and academic analyses are mixed together in a field where often the borders between different particular issues are crossed. This intersection of theoretical writings discloses a great deal of agreement between academic conclusions and the ones screenwriters reach in their day-to-day practice, which can produce the question: in what ways do screenwriting manuals and analytical studies complement each other and how do they exchange contributions?

My thesis project examines CS Lewis's Space Trilogy, where the tale of hero/philologist Dr. Ransom illustrates concepts regarding language, experience, heroism, and emotion. This becomes particularly interesting when considering the theories of Joseph Campbell (heroic journey/mythic motif) and Owen Barfield (myth is significant as an expression of language in relation to the human condition). Lewis contends there has been a process of working against “mythical imagination,” moving the hero away from the concrete and toward the abstract. This path produces “men without chests," where the head rules without the benefit of an informing heart, and where cold thought exists alongside a "defect of fertile and generous emotion." Lewis reverses this process: he supplies a hero informed by both head and heart, who demonstrates an awareness of conventions of language, emotion, and expression where mythic concepts are available and understanding need not be abstract or calculating to be valuable.

setting of the story is its most interesting feature, and the text portrays a very real feeling of that city. It focuses heavily on the precarious lifestyles of the Flannigan Brothers, who are trapped in an endless cycle of poverty, while at the same time maintaining a kind of hope throughout their experiences. This essay analyses the journey (or lack thereof) the two main characters make in and around the city of Reno, and it focuses on the importance class issues have in the lifestyle of the two main characters. The idea of third-space, a concept coined by Edward Soja, will be presented to comprehend the complex urban environment of Reno that appears in the novel. Finally, the idea of this novel as defying mainstream ideas surrounding the American West will be examined.

It was the biggest film event in 2003. On the release day November 5th, the New York Times wrote: “In a first-ever global theatrical debut, the movie will open Wednesday on 10,013 screens in more than 50 countries and in 43 languages [...] the movie is also being released for the first time simultaneously in IMAX theaters in nine countries.” Besides being an attempt to stave off piracy, the universal release of Matrix Revolutions was a giant media event: “We think it’s theatrical, it’s fun, it’s exciting,” Mr. Horn [president of Warner Brothers Entertainment] said. “We talk about having event movies at Warner Brothers, and this is a way to further event-size our movies.” (New York Times, Nov 5th, 2003, E1).
There were high expectations for the final installment of the trilogy, which had become a phenomenon thanks to the second film. “Everything that has a beginning has an end” declared a PR bit for the film. It was a slogan that sought at once to connect it to the earlier Matrix films and to place it in its own context: this was the culmination of the story and would enhance our understanding of it. But the reactions and reviews ranged from unenthusiastic to disappointed. Most people found the first part, The Matrix to be the best one, and neither Matrix Reloaded nor Matrix Revolutions convinced audiences, rather leaving them somewhat puzzled. What were the reasons for this? What did the creators of the Trilogy, the Wachowski Brothers, do wrong?

Posté par revueprojections ⋅ juin 20, 2012 ⋅ 2 Commentaires Classé dans Christopher Vogler Il existe aujourd'hui peu d'écrivains qui n'ont pas entendu parler de La force d'inspiration des mythes pour l'écriture cinématographique et romanesque, de Christopher Vogler. En effet, l'idée matrice qui y est véhiculée et qui veut que dans toutes les histoires, on retrouve des éléments structurels universels, a servi et sert encore à plus d'un auteur/scénariste. Toutefois, le succès dont jouit Vogler devrait être partagé car sa théorie n'est pas nouvelle : il s'inspire en effet directement des écrits de Joseph Campbell et du travail de Vladimir Propp. La question est donc la suivante : qu'est-ce que Vogler a bien pu leur emprunter pour formuler sa « recette scénaristique »? Afin d'y répondre, nous commencerons d'abord par analyser les textes antérieurs à celui de Vogler.

A presentation on Faulkner's novel, setting it in the context of aesthetic modernism (T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Cubism) and highlighting the novel's attempt to re-found mythic or archetypal structures in the wake of the abyss and fragmentation of modernity.

This paper provides a brief introductory interpretation of some key archetypal motifs in the Celtic mythology of Tristan and Isolde.  The interpretation is based on elements taken from numerous interpreters of the myth, from Thomas of Brittany and Gottfried von Strassburg to the contemporary retelling by the French scholar, Joseph Bedier, from which the current author’s narrative is largely derived.  An archetypal tale of forbidden love, the story of Tristan and Isolde is one of the most profound and thoroughly developed archetypal stories of the hero journey, utilizing more than 60 archetypal symbols and motifs, rich with metaphorical imagery closely corresponding to the images found abundantly in the world’s myths, rites, shamanic initiations and Jung’s individuation process.  The narrative is augmented with amplification by archetypal images appearing in the Celtic tale that are also found in mythopoeic narratives of the ancient Greeks, Hebrews and other cultures.  Possible psychological meanings of the images are indicated, and a bibliography is provided for further research.

This bachelor thesis analyses the literary techniques used to convey a culture-critical message about our relation to online media in The Circle (Dave Eggers, 2013) and Ready Player One (Ernest Cline, 2011). Both novels are a pressing warning against our dependence on online media, and attempt to warn their readers against media. They do
so by creating a contrast between the dystopian character of the novel and the utopian society as their narrators see it. This contrast is further strengthened by the opposing of the real world and the online world in both novels. Secondly, the protagonists are used to
convey the warning. Both have to make a choice at the end of the novel; whether to choose for the real world or remain in the online world completely. Ready Player One features a heroic narrator, who makes the heroic choice in choosing for the real world. The protagonist of The Circle however remains a flat character throughout the novel, with whom a reader cannot sympathize, and who eventually chooses the online world over the real world. This thesis will show exactly how Cline and Eggersconvey the warning in their novels.

The book I wrote on Joseph Campbell's reception of C.G. Jung. Based on my PhD thesis at university of Edinburgh, Religious Studies department, and on archival research done at Joseph Campbell library in Santa Barbara. First chapter available for download.

“Going beyond the conventional paralleling of Campbell with Jung, Ritske Rensma argues that Campbell’s view of Jung went through three stages. At first, Campbell granted Jung and Freud equal importance in the understanding of myth. Next, Campbell rejected Jung's view on, especially, the origin of myth in favor of the ethological view espoused by Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen. Finally, Campbell came to see the overlap between Jung and the ethologists. An original, scholarly approach to Campbell, one that rests substantially on the scrutiny of unpublished material. Strongly recommended.”

Robert A. Segal, Sixth Century Chair in Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen, UK

Yapılan bu çalışmada Medya ve Çocuk İlişkisi, Sinema ve Çocuk Filmleri
incelenmiş, özdeşleşme kavramı ile televizyon ve sinema üzerinden izler kitleye sunulan
idealize edilmiş tek tip karakter ve hikâye anlatılarına dikkat çekilmiştir. Örneklem olarak
seçilen üç film Campbell’ın Karakterin Sonsuz Yolculuğu ve Hikâye Anlatısı ile
incelenmiş tek tipleşme ortaya çıkartılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Çocuk İzleyici, Joseph Campbell, Medya, Özdeşleşme, Sinema

School: Istanbul Dogus University
Department: English Language and Literature
Graduation Project Advisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Gillian M. E. Alban
Completion Date: June 2010

ABSTRACT

Harry Potter and the adventure he sets off on have enchanted people for over ten years now. Some love it, some hate it; some wrote numerous books and research papers on it. Harry Potter is an orphaned boy whose parents were murdered at the hand of the darkest wizard of all ages, Lord Voldemort. He was brought to live with his dreadful relatives, the Dursleys, and when he was eleven years old, he found out from a letter coming from a magical school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that he was actually a wizard. It was only after he started his education that he found out he was somehow linked to that darkest wizard and expected to destroy him. The interesting part of Harry Potter’s journey is that it follows the basic structure that each and every hero one way or another goes through. In his The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell calls it monomyth, that is to say one myth. This concept is closely linked to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung’s opinions on the archetypes. According to the monomyth structure, the hero starts his journey with Departure, faces temptations and very dangerous, life-changing trials in Initiation. The Return is the last section in which he comes back from his journey with the knowledge and wisdom he gains through those trials, and is expected to heal the world(s) he lives in.

There are countless mythological allusions in the Harry Potter series that enable us to connect Harry and his exploits to many mythical figures and events respectively. Just as Cerberus is illustrated as a three-headed dog guarding the gates of Hades in Greek mythology, in Harry Potter it has the same guarding job and is responsible for the protection of the entrance to the Philosopher’s Stone. Phoenix, Basilisk and many other connections and symbols are fittingly discussed and put into the storyline to enrich it. These connections and the choices Harry makes throughout his adventure help us understand why and how Harry is considered to be a hero.

Resumo O presente artigo apresenta uma análise sobre a importância do estudo dos símbolos religiosos, enfatizando seu caráter histórico e antropológico. Para tanto, é feito um estudo com base em autores que investigaram esse tema, como Campbell, Frazer e Jung, que dedicaram grande parte de suas obras aos estudos dos símbolos religiosos nas mais diversas civilizações, chegando ao consenso de que os símbolos foram uma das primeiras formas de manifestação linguística e religiosa da humanidade. Ao final, aponta-se a necessidade de maiores investigações sobre o tema, de modo a indicar as ricas áreas científicas que tal estudo insere e com o objetivo de levar o leitor a perceber que a Psicologia pode abordar outras áreas, além da clínica e do entendimento das patologias psicológicas, ou seja, a Psicologia tem material necessário para o estudo e a investigação das religiões, das crenças e dos ritos que permeiam a humanidade desde tempos imemoriais. Abstract The current article represents, following a simple language, an analysis on the importance of the religious simbolism stressing its anthropologic and historical character. Therefore, a research based on previous authors who investigated this issue such as Campbell, Frazer and Jung. Men who dedicated great part of their work to the research and studying the religious symbols in their differences in civilizations, getting to the point that symbols were the first linguistic and religious occurrence of mankind. Then, a conclusion is done about the need for more investigations on the issue pointing out the diversity of scientific areas that insert this kind of study and also, the article should lead the reader to realize that psychology can address other areas, beyond the understanding of the clinical and psychological pathology, or psychology is required material for the study and research of religions, beliefs and rituals that permeate mankind since time immemorial.

W artykule przeprowadzono analizę filmu Alicja w Krainie Czarów (2010), wyreżyserowanego przez Tima Burtona, jako realizacji Campbellowskiego schematu narracyjnego wyprawy bohatera. Burton, a także scenarzystka, Linda Wolvertoon, potraktowali literackie pierwowzory autorstwa Lewisa Carrolla (1865, 1871) jedynie jako punkt wyjścia do przedstawienia autorskiej wizji. W prezentowanych rozważaniach zaproponowano interpretację filmowej postaci Alicji jako bohaterki mitycznej, która musi zyskać samoświadomość i przejść wewnętrzną metamorfozę – transgresję z zagubionej panienki w odważną wojowniczkę o własną autonomię.

A look at Joseph Campbell's A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, a book owned and read by Sylvia Plath in her formative years. This is part of a series summarizing and quoting from books that were important to, and I believe, shaped Sylvia Plath’s work, since the majority of Plath fans today have not read them. This was first posted on www.juliagordonbramer.com.

This paper decodes the story of Campbell's namesake, Joseph of Genesis, son of Jacob. It demonstrates that Joseph, much more so than Moses, represents the archetypal hero. Joseph is called to adventure into the unknown. Due to the boundedness of the Abrahamic worldview, Joseph must leave monotheistic Israel to fulfil his potential in polytheistic Egypt. It is as vice-roy of Pharaoh that he comes into his own power, his political eminence an emanation of his intuitive, creative power. Joseph's journey itself serves as the Call to Adventure for the hero's journey of Israel: Israel, as a people, must recognize Joseph's creative power and follow him into Egypt to realize their own procreative power. Before returning to the familiarity of the desert, the motherless children of Israel are called into the unknown to be nourished by the Nile. It is at the banks of the Nile that they fulfil their divine mandate to multiply. Joseph's intuitive power – the ability to receive and interpret prophetic dreams – makes explicit what is implicitly encoded in the Campbellian hero's journey: the masculine individual consciousness venturing into the feminine collective unconscious, matrix of creativity, in pursuit of wholeness. His story moreover celebrates the centrality of personal transformation to the Campbellian heroic quest, flourishing through embodiment of transformational leadership. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Raj Balkaran, [email protected].

O presente livro é fruto de cinco anos de pesquisas durante minha graduação em Psicologia. Trata de um livro de pesquisa científica, com bolsa da Fapesp. O livro visa o estudo dos símbolos religiosos e sua relação com a Maçonaria, bem como, fazer uma análise, através da História e da Psicologia, e de outras ciências humanas, para compreender os motivos da existência da crença popular de que a Ordem maçônica seja uma espécie de culto diabólico. O mesmo pode ser adquirido no site da editora: www.editoramultifoco.com.br . Estará disponível a partir de 28/09.

Жизненный и творческий путь Джозефа Кэмпбелла (1904 – 1987) можно справедливо назвать «страстным интеллектуальным путешествием», вполне подпадающим под описание пути героя. Познакомившись поближе с биографией учёного, мы можем извлечь для себя много полезного как в профессиональной  деятельности, так и в личной жизни.
Мифология заинтересовала Дж. Кэмпбелла ещё с детства и  впоследствии стала для него тем самым «блаженством», следование которому он считал главной целью жизни любого человека. Сначала погрузившись в мифологию североамериканских индейцев, довольно скоро учёный значительно расширил границы предмета своего изучения, включив в него все мировые мифологии.
Уже в самом начале своего исследовательского пути Дж. Кэмпбелл пришёл к пониманию взаимосвязи мифологии с психологией, литературой и искусством, и хотя в те годы официальная наука не признавала междисциплинарного подхода, именно новаторские идеи учёного позволили ему стать выдающимся мифологом XX века.
К наиболее важным теоретическим построениям Дж. Кэмпбелла относятся описанная в «Тысячеликом герое» концепция мономифа (единой великой мистической истории, рассказываемой во все времена и во всех регионах), выделенные в «Масках бога» 4 основные функции мифа, а также предложенная модель развития мифологии.
Дж. Кэмпбелл делал основной акцент на психологическую функцию мифа: миф для него – это проводник во внутреннем мире, а мифология – средство стимуляции психологического развития индивидуума и постижения его особенностей и закономерностей. Он считал, что миф представляет собой универсальную матрицу личностного роста и трансформации, и что, понимая, каким образом мифы и символы влияют на наше сознание, мы сможем жить в согласии с собственной сокровенной природой и следовать по пути к счастью. Такой подход принёс огромную популярность идеям учёного, сделав их особенно актуальными и близкими для каждого человека.
Дж. Кэмпбелл нашёл своё призвание в жизни и неизменно следовал избранному пути. Он считал, что должен что-то сделать для человечества, и ему это удалось сполна. Выдающийся учёный, одарённый преподаватель и лектор, прекрасный оратор, увлекательный сказитель – это далеко не полный перечень всех граней таланта Дж. Кэмпбелла. Его вклад в сравнительную мифологию сложно переоценить, как и его роль в возрождении интереса к мифологии в современном мире.

Fumito Ueda’s works have contributed significantly to the fact that video games are well-known as artistic products. “The Last Guardian” (2016), his third video game, seems to be an evolution of his unique style and aesthetics, specially the mythological aspect.
In the present investigation, we are going to analyze the story of “The Last Guardian” (2016) from two different theoretical frameworks based on the relationship between myths and modern storytelling: the archetypical plots and the hero’s journey. That exposition is going to let us notice the mythological influence in Ueda’s video game.

Los trabajos de Fumito Ueda han contribuido significativamente a que los videojuegos sean bien conocidos como productos artísticos. “The Last Guardian” (2016), su tercera obra, parece ser la evolución de su estilo y estética únicos, especialmente del aspecto mitológico.
En la presente investigación, vamos a analizar el argumento de “The Last Guardian” (2016) desde dos marcos teóricos distintos basados en la relación entre los mitos y la narrativa moderna: las tramas arquetípicas y el viaje del héroe. Todo con el objetivo de entrever la influencia mitológica en el trabajo de Ueda.

This thesis explores the disorientation that can follow the loss of religious faith, the lingering effects of religious complexes or religious trauma, and a possible path for fulfilling the religious instinct through fostering personal myths. Using psychologists Carl G. Jung, William James, and James Hillman as conversation partners, the approach is primarily hermeneutical with heuristic and alchemical hermeneutic components that describe a shift away from Christianity to a personal myth centered in the Celtic mythos. Starting with an examination of the definition of religion in contemporary religious studies, pluralism and polytheism are explored as a foundation for spiritual exploration that is conducive to the process of individuation and spiritual wholeness. Four sources for shaping personal myth are examined, through world religions, personalization, personification, and creative mythology.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) has remained the most widely discussed of his novels in the five decades since its publication. However, the volume of critical work produced on it far outweighs the unique lines of thought investigated. The critiques have mostly been limited to – diagnoses of Billy Pilgrim’s mental disorder, locating the sources of the diagnosed ailments, examinations of Vonnegut’s intended philosophy, comparisons of the novel to other anti-war works, and investigations of the elements of humor and science fiction in the novel. This article attempts a close reading of the novel along the lines of the hero quest, or monomyth, as chronicled in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) by Joseph Campbell. The article disentangles the novel to release the inherent quest narrative from its non-linear structure and reinterprets it in terms of Campbell’s quest stages to reveal an uncanny resemblance to the mythical hero’s journey. The nature of the journey and the hero’s traits, and the departures observed in Vonnegut’s monomyth from Campbell’s determine the relevance and implications of Billy’s quest and warrant the need to coin his quest anew, namely the anti-monomyth.

El presente trabajo de investigación es un análisis literario sobre algunos pasajes de La Odisea de Homero y su relación con la película de Hayao Miyazaki El viaje de Chihiro (2001). Se exploró la conexión de ciertos motivos folclóricos claros en ambas obras y la evolución de sus protagonistas en torno al viaje del héroe en un ámbito espiritual y su regreso a la cotidianeidad. El resultado de este fue la permanencia de varios motivos folclóricos así como sus implicaciones en ambas obras, sobre todo el tema del viaje a un mundo paralelo al de los vivos, tomando en cuenta la evolución de los protagonistas en su viaje épico y su contacto con seres míticos y la magia. La importancia de este estudio recae en establecer esta relación entre estas obras que ha sido negada u obviada por otros estudios, los cuales ignoran la naturaleza mítica de ambas obras y los motivos universales presentes tanto en Occidente como en Oriente. Palabras clave: Viaje, espíritus, dioses, brujas, monstruo.