Campbell Reading and Writing Literature Overview Finally, we get to the meat of this course. For the next three weeks we will be examining the three stage

Campbell Reading and Writing Literature Overview

Finally, we get to the meat of this course. For the next three weeks we will be examining the three stages of the Hero’s Journey. I have attached a power point that gives, in note form, a very basic outline of the journey as a whole. I feel that Campbell should speak for himself at this point. As you read, if questions come up, post the questions and your thoughts on the discussion board. As a class we can work through the material.

For this week’s microtheme, Campbell defines the departure and then subdivides this step into: the call, the refusal, supernatural aid, the crossing, and the belly of the whale. After you have read Campbell, find examples of his ideas in the material excerpted by Leeming. Explain fully how your specific examples from Leeming illustrate the definitions and concepts you supplied from Campbell. Use QUOTES from both.

Readings

Chapter 1 in Hero
Part Three in Leeming (be sure to read the commentary at the end)
The Hero PowerPoint Presentation
Microtheme

This week asks that you consider the first stage of the Hero’s journey, Departure. So, your outline would look like so:

Introduction: What are you writing about? (Departure). How does Campbell define it? (Use a direct quote and then explain it in your own words). Now, explain that there are subcategories to the departure (Campbell covers 5 in his chapter. You need only to pick 2-3). So, let’s say I pick “refusal of the call” and “Belly of the Whale.” My thesis would be: Campbell identifies refusal of the call and Belly of the Whale as being key sub-categories to the Hero’s departure.

Part 1: Refusal of the Call

Definition: How does Campbell define it? (Quote). Then explain in your own words what that means.

Example: Use an example from Leeming (Quote). Be sure to explain what story the quote is coming from and provide some context for the selection.

Explanation: How does this example from Leeming illustrate Campbell’s concept?

Part 2: Belly of the Whale

Definition: How does Campbell define it? (Quote). Then explain in your own words what that means.

Example: Use an example from Leeming (Quote). Be sure to explain what story the quote is coming from and provide some context for the selection.

Explanation: How does this example from Leeming illustrate Campbell’s concept?

Part 3: Summation: This is more akin to what we have been doing. Pull back and take a moment to consider how the themes of departure and the subcategories relate to “real life”? Keep in mind that both Jung and Campbell sat that myths gain their significance when we understand how they give us road maps to maturity. So, consider that, here, based on your analysis above.

Part 4: Conclusion: You know how to do that.

A microtheme will be due each week. These will be short (2-4 pages) summaries of and responses to the required readings from that week. Microthemes will address your questions about the readings as well as attempts to answer these questions as you work to make sense of the material. This is a good place for you to make connections between the work of the class and ideas regarding rhetoric and communication. This is a good opportunity for you to work at making sense of the reading and building awareness of your thinking process. The Hero:
Symbolic Vitality
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
Your playing small does not serve the world. There is
nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all
meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of
us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do
the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our
presence automatically liberates others.
(Coach Carter)
The Adventure
A Hero ventures forth from the world of the
common day into a region of supernatural
wonder: fabulous forces are there
encountered and a decisive victory is won: the
hero comes back from the mysterious
adventure with the power to bestow boons on
his fellow man (J. Campbell, H1K, 30)
Separation:
In the call and separation, the hero’s activity
must be directed toward some goal outside
him/herself to lead to his/her authentic
wholeness.
The Call:
“The journey always begins here. The call is to
leave a certain social situation, move into your
loneliness and find the jewel, the center that’s
impossible to find when you are socially
engaged” (J. Campbell)
We are off center in the social. We define
ourselves through external criteria,
expectations, contexts.
Initiation:
The Battles.
The passage over and through these thresholds
is a kind of self-annihilation, either inward or
outward, a contest between contradictory
forces within the self which the hero must
face before he can perform his life renewing
act.
The Temptations at the Threshold
Jesus
• Economic: power over
others
• Political: power over others
• Spiritual (when ideology
becomes dogma): power
over God.
Buddha
• Lust (desire): personal
• Fear: personal
• Social Duty (do what you
are told): social
In these struggles, the hero comes to wholeness and a
new relationship to the world and is made suitable
for his role within the culture.
These struggles/trials/temptations are where to gain
yourself, you must lose the self you have come to
cling to as “yourself.”
This is the giving up of what you planned for yourself in
order to embrace what has been waiting for you.
“Psychologically, it’s a shift into the
unconsciousness, otherwise, it’s a move into
the filed of action of which you know
nothing.” (J. Campbell)
The result of these trials may be favorable or
unfavorable. It depends on your reasons/your
purpose.
The Return:
“The Hero has died a modern man; but as
eternal man—perfected, unspecific, universal
man—he has been reborn. His second solemn
task and deed therefore is to return to us,
transfigured, and teach the lessons he has
learned of life renewed.”
(J. Campbell, H1K, 20)
The hero winds up where he/she began, but is
transfigured and posses boons to bestow
upon his fellowman.
In Sum:
“Where we had thought to slay another, we
shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to
travel outward, we shall come to the center of
our existence; where we had thought to be
alone, we shall be with all the world.”
(J. Campbell, H1K, 25)
The Rite of Transformation
• At its heart, this is what the Hero’s Journey is
all about. “The quest and the return are two
halves of the same circle. They comprise the
empowerment process or journey of
beginning that joins the participants with the
ideal realm of their deities.”
• Seperation?Initiation?Return
• The way we want to look at this is
in the context of symbol. So, we
can begin with the idea that the
heroic journey is a symbol of our
own transformation.
• Campbell: The hero is a model of
behavior. And the heroic act is
one of transformation.
• In this perspective, the journey or
trip is a manifestation of his or
her own nature. The adventure is
the experience of life that leads
to a change in consciousness.
What is the goal? Follow your Bliss
• The hero is a symbol of our vitality. The
influence of a vital person is to vitalize.
• This is done going through life looking for
those symbols that evokes our vital character.
We get to know ourselves as we go along. We
have to pay attention and choose symbols and
situations that reveal the best—not the worst.
Dragons: The Worst
• Our greed and our ego. It is also our shame. It
is the manifestation of that thing that which
would prevent us from achieving our true
potential.
• The dragon is a symbol of stagnation and
futility. Not the symbol of vitality.
• The hero, as symbol, and the journey, as symbol,
leads to a reversal of existence. What we thought
was strength is a weakness. What we thought
was our weakness is our strength.
• We look to those symbols that raise our
consciousness by changing the field. They infuse
all life with that significance. When we can have
that feeling of sanctity always—we have
transformed our life.

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