The Hero with a Thousand Faces  

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[[Christopher Vogler]], a Hollywood film producer and writer, wrote a memo for [[Disney Studios]] on the use of ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' as a guide for scriptwriters; this memo influenced the creation of such films as [[Aladdin]], [[The Lion King]] and [[Beauty and the Beast]]. Vogler later expanded the memo and published it as the book ''[[The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers]]'', which became the inspiration for a number of successful Hollywood films and is believed to have been used in the development of the ''[[The Matrix series|Matrix]]'' series. [[Christopher Vogler]], a Hollywood film producer and writer, wrote a memo for [[Disney Studios]] on the use of ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' as a guide for scriptwriters; this memo influenced the creation of such films as [[Aladdin]], [[The Lion King]] and [[Beauty and the Beast]]. Vogler later expanded the memo and published it as the book ''[[The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers]]'', which became the inspiration for a number of successful Hollywood films and is believed to have been used in the development of the ''[[The Matrix series|Matrix]]'' series.
 +==See also==
 +*[[Artists influenced by "The Hero with a Thousand Faces"]]
 +*[[The Golden Bough]]
 +*[[Bildungsroman]]
 +*[[Otto Rank]]
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

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The Hero with a Thousand Faces (first published in 1949) is a non-fiction book, and seminal work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell. In this publication, Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies.

Since publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell's theory has been consciously applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. The best known is perhaps George Lucas, who has acknowledged a debt to Campbell regarding the stories of the Star Wars films.

Artists influenced by work

In Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation, a book drawn from Campbell's late lectures and workshops, he says about artists and the monomyth:

"Artists are magical helpers. Evoking symbols and motifs that connect us to our deeper selves, they can help us along the heroic journey of our own lives. [...] The artist is meant to put the objects of this world together in such a way that through them you will experience that light, that radiance which is the light of our consciousness and which all things both hide and, when properly looked upon, reveal. The hero journey is one of the universal patterns through which that radiance shows brightly. What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There's always the possibility of a fiasco. But there's also the possibility of bliss."

The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced a number of artists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers, including Bob Dylan and George Lucas. Mickey Hart, Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead had long noted Campbell's influence and agreed to participate in a seminar with him in 1986 entitled From Ritual to Rapture.[1]

Stanley Kubrick introduced Arthur C. Clarke to the book during the writing of 2001: A Space Odyssey. [2]

George Lucas' deliberate use of Campbell's theory of the monomyth in the making of the Star Wars movies is well-documented. In addition to the extensive discussion between Campbell and Bill Moyers, broadcast in 1988 on PBS as The Power of Myth (filmed at "Skywalker Ranch"), on Campbell's influence on the Star Wars films, Lucas gave an extensive interview for the biography Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind (Larsen and Larsen, 2002, pages 541-543) on this topic.

Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood film producer and writer, wrote a memo for Disney Studios on the use of The Hero with a Thousand Faces as a guide for scriptwriters; this memo influenced the creation of such films as Aladdin, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. Vogler later expanded the memo and published it as the book The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers, which became the inspiration for a number of successful Hollywood films and is believed to have been used in the development of the Matrix series.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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