Monomyth and Joseph Campbell (Hero's Journey)

[Mklangelo]

I do have an old copy of "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" lying about. It is considered a seminal work by many noted scholars and word smiths alike.

In it, Campbell describes the "Hero's Journey". It basically breaks down many of the great stories of the world. He contends that these stories have survived thousands of years, simply because they have a universal, cross-cultural appeal. They strike a chord in us at some basic level. George Lucas was one who obviously used this MonoMyth in "Star Wars"

I've seen several movies deconstructed using this formula including, believe it or not, "Annie Hall".

I'm just in my learning phase in preparation for writing a story and the more groundwork I do now, will make my job easier in the long run. I'm laying a solid foundation first.

So, does anyone in this forum subscribe to this method of understanding story?

[Phaeal]

The Hero's Journey is one good way to look at story structure. I prefer to let stories grow organically from a kernel of four parts:

Who is the main character?
What does he want?
What are the circumstances that threaten to thwart him?
Who are his principal allies and opponents?

Elements of the Hero's Journey are likely to appear in conventional stories whether the writer has planned on them or not, which is what supports Campbell's contention.

[Brighid]

If you're interested in studying the Hero's Journey you may want to check out The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler (http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Journey-Structure-Storytellers-Screenwriters/dp/0941188132). He looks at the structure from a writer's viewpoint.

[dpaterso]

To those who aren't sure what's being discussed, there are a couple of links in the screenwriting tips (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24087) sticky thread in Screen Writing discussion forum that list stages of the Hero's Journey:

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/sffilm/mmswtab.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00800/worksheet.htm

I also uploaded a couple of files for my own easy reference:

Hero's Journey (http://www.freewebs.com/dpat57/journey.htm)
Star Wars Origins (http://www.freewebs.com/dpat57/hero_sw.htm)

-Derek

[StephanieFox]

When I was in school, I did a paper on Jungian architypes in television drama – this was in the early 1980s. I suppose you can find the hero's journey in pretty much all drama, too if you look hard enough. I am a huge fan of Campbell and if you can structure a story based on his ideas, more power to you.

I agree with Phaeal. If you do that, your story will naturally fall into the archetypal story (of which there are several kinds º not just the hero's journey.)

[Mklangelo]

The thing that prompted me to start this thread is this:

I remember seeing Bill Moyers sit down with Joseph Campbell in a multi part series on Public TV where they discussed this MonoMyth. ( I know Campbell died in 1987) In this series Campbell was talking about "The World Navel" and "The Crossing of The First Threshold" and all this "stuff" that left me bewildered. But I knew something was true here on a subliminal level... I don't know when this series ran, but it must have been 10 years ago or more.

Second, on my recent journey of discovery on the craft of story telling, I have run into this again.

Myth: a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people.

Mono: One.

MonoMyth = One Story.




Post Script: dpaterso, thanks for the links. It will do a service to this thread.

[Lucke]

I have the Joseph Campbell/Bill Moyer interview on VHS. It is great and I use it in conjunction with teaching "Heart of Darkness" and "Macbeth" to my AP seniors. Are you looking for it? Have you checked online book/movie sellers?

[misterkel]

I think Hero's Journey is one type of story. It's common and for a very good reason. It's easy to build a strong, compelling plot that speaks to anyone. But it doesn't apply to every story, IMO, unless you stretch it pretty hard.

[jodi henley]

yeah, while I understand the concept and think it's pretty nifty, if you have to stretch your writing to fit--maybe the fit isn't as good as it should be.

[maestrowork]

The hero's journey is a good start, especially to analyze typical plot structures when it comes to arcs. The hero's journey is classic, popular and can be followed and also tailored. Jesus' story was a classic hero's journey. Star Wars. And many coming of age stories. It's not to say it's the only way to write stories, but it really is a good start to understand story structures, and character archetypes. Even if you're not doing a hero's journey, there are phases that you can use in your work: Ordinary World, Refuse to call, etc.