On Joseph Campbell (Crossposting from EN 201)

This afternoon, after our class today, I realized that this entry from my EN 201 blog could be useful as we consider Marlow and his quest in Heart of Darkness. I like to show a tape of Moyers' interview with him in EN 201 because it sets up a useful, modern definition of the hero and the quest that may well explain our discomfort with Gilgamesh and Achilles as heroes. Additionally, Campbell studied so many cultures that he provides a good model for our approach to world literature this semester. (It's true, though, that scholars have criticized Campbell for being too much of a generalist, but at our level, a generalist is probably more helpful to us than a specialist would be.)

First of all, here is a biography of Joseph Campbell from the Joseph Campbell Foundation:

http://www.jcf.org/about_jc.php

This essay was written by a student of Campbell and includes some recollections about him:
http://www.folkstory.com/campbell/campbell.html

Here is an outline of Campbell's "stages of the hero's journey." It's the same handout that I gave you today (Monday 1/28).  Compare these stages to the sequence of events in Heart of Darkness and other works that we read this semester.

http://ias.berkeley.edu/orias/hero/JourneyStages.pdf

FYAmuse, Campbell's work also influenced George Lucas' initial Star Wars movies. Campbell, in turn, had been influenced by Carl Jung's theories of psychology and Mircea Eliade's history and philosophy of religions. For more information about Jung, see the site below:

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html

For more information about Eliade, see the site below:

http://www.westminster.edu/staff/brennie/eliade/mebio.htm

If you are interested in writing or storytelling, this site from Maricopa Community College in Arizona could be worth exploring.

http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/

Below are some critiques of Campbell's work and his approach. The first is from a Christian perspective. The second responds to concerns that Christian theologians have with Campbell and the study of mythology.
http://logosresourcepages.org/FalseTeachings/campbell.htm
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=171

Here is a defense of Campbell's work and approach, also from The Christian Century. This defense mentions Campbell's use of Jungian psychology as well as the extent to which Campbell is misread and to which he misread Jung.

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=766

From what's out there, Joseph Campbell and his work or his influence might be a good topic for an annotated bibliography--or a presentation!