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Home Administration Syllabus Course policies Required texts E-mail & listserv Notes & Forms Course Overview Unit 1-Why Myth? Unit 2-Heroes Unit 3-Fairy Tales Unit Schedules Unit 1 schedule Unit 2 schedule Unit 3 schedule Assignments Essay 1 Essay 2 Essay 3 & 4 |
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Unit 2 - The Hero's Journey"Furthermore, we have not even to risk the journey alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world." In his seminal work, The Hero With A Thousand Faces (1948), Joseph Campbell showed that there is a single archetype for all myths; a single hero and a single journey pattern which emerges in many different versions from many different cultures. This journey pattern occurs in a cycle consisting of three phases: departure, where the hero leaves his comfortable and familiar world and ventures into the darkness of the unknown; initiation, where the hero is subjected to a series of tests in which he must prove his character; and return, in which the hero brings the boon of his quest back for the benefit of his people. In this unit we will study Campbell's hero's journey pattern, and the fundamental psychological transformation that it represents in the lives of everyone. Our study will include the popular film Spiderman and the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a modern examples of the hero's journey, and Peter Parker and Buffy Summers as modern heroes. How does the hero's journey define what makes a hero? How do these films address the journey pattern as defined by Campbell? How do the film's heroes meet the challenges of the quest?
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