Perhaps the best-known comparative mythologist of this age, Joseph Campbell was born March 26, 1904, in New York, to a middle class, Roman Catholic family. As a child he saw, and was enchanted with, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show; subsequently he developed, while still a youth, a keen interest in Native American cultures and mythologies. As he grew up and as his education continued, this early fascination with culture and myth expanded to include the myths of many cultures worldwide – it could well be said of him that he “followed his bliss,” something he would ultimately exhort his readers and students to do.
His education – he studied at Dartmouth, Columbia, and the Universities of Paris and Munich – was extensive, including linguistic, anthropological and literary studies. He was well-traveled, and had an open and inquisitive mind. In the course of his studies, he came to feel that there was a strong commonality linking the various myths and legends of disparate lands and cultures. Campbell believed that myth was universal, because it sprang from the common imagination of the collective unconscious. He went so far as to enumerate the particular themes and features that different myths shared, theorizing, in the case of these heroic myths, the standard storyline which he called the monomyth. In his seminal book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, he mapped the universal Hero’s Journey in detail, using as example myths from many cultures and traditions.
First published in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces was and still is widely read, and has influenced many people, most notably George Lucas, who read it while working on the Star Wars screenplay. Campbell wrote prolifically on the subject of myth; some of his other books are The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Mythic Image and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. The overarching message of Campbell’s work, complementary to Carl Jung’s work with fairytales, dreams, archetypes and the collective unconscious, is that myth is inherently human, spiritually and psychologically necessary: myth provides us instruction on how to live. From 1934 – 1972, Campbell was a professor at Sarah Lawrence College.
Charismatic, intelligent and articulate, Campbell has perhaps done more to popularize and disseminate the thoughtful study of myth than any other single contemporary figure. Joseph Campbell reached probably his widest audience through the six-part public television series with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, which was taped in 1987, the year of Campbell’s death, and broadcast posthumously.
Not all scholars of myth are enthusiastic about Campbell’s work and message. There are detractors, such as Robert A. Segal, professor of Religious Studies at Lancaster University, UK. While Segal is the first to observe that Campbell has revitalized popular interest in myth, he maintains that Campbell has failed to prove that the meaning of myth is universal, psychological, or Jungian, and that Campbell’s approach is not sufficiently academic.
A Joseph Campbell Bibliography appears at the end of this study guide, following the Works Consulted page.