Campbell, Joseph
<p>Nov 07, 2010 05:50 PM
 
The Monomyth (often referred to as <b>"the hero's journey"</b>) is a description of a basic pattern found in many narratives from around the world. This universal pattern was described by <b>Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)</b>. A noted scholar of novelist James Joyce, Campbell borrowed the term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
Campbell's insight was that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years, all share a fundamental structure.
In a well-known quote from the introduction to <b>The Hero with a Thousand Faces</b>, Campbell wrote:
? A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the <b>power to bestow boons on his fellow man.</b>?
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