The Hero with a Thousand Faces-Art Life and Lives (Patreon)

This is a little bit of a weird one. Today I’ll be talking about the Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.

Published in 1949, the book explores the common patterns and themes found in myths and stories from various cultures throughout history. One of the most enduring ideas in it since its release is Campbell’s idea of the "monomyth" which later evolved into being called the Hero's Journey.

The monomyth is a universal narrative structure shared by diverse cultures throughout history. The specific details will change, and the emphasis placed on different stages of the journey change to reflect the values of cultures, but the broad narrative structure remains.

The hero’s journey resonates not because of who the hero is but because we see ourselves in the hero. We project our ordeals onto the ordeals of the hero. Our deepest ambitions. Our desires to be better and make up for our flaws. It isn’t just something that’s made up and arbitrarily followed to make up fantasy stories, it’s an organic outgrowth of our lives.

One of Campbell's key insights is the idea that the hero's journey is a metaphor for personal growth, transformation, and the search for meaning. The hero faces challenges, confronts inner and outer conflicts, and ultimately undergoes a profound transformation, emerging stronger and wiser.

In this video I'm going to go through the stages of the Hero's Journey that Campbell lays out in the book, then I give some ways that these ideas might be useful for us artists.

References:

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell  

As I say in the video, the book itself is pretty dense and I had a difficult time getting through it.

Check out the documentary series called the Power of Myth for a more accessible version of these ideas.

The conversations with Campbell and Moyers from the  Power of Myth was also turned into a book