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Joseph Campbell’s Four Functions of Mythology

Joseph Campbell’s Four Functions of Mythology. The Mystical/Metaphysical Prospect The Cosmological Prospect The Social Prospect The Psychological Sphere. The Mystical/Metaphysical Prospect.

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Joseph Campbell’s Four Functions of Mythology

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  1. Joseph Campbell’s Four Functions of Mythology The Mystical/Metaphysical Prospect The Cosmological Prospect The Social Prospect The Psychological Sphere

  2. The Mystical/Metaphysical Prospect The religious/spiritual function: a myth is meant to make people experience the powerful feeling of the divine in their lives.

  3. The Cosmological Prospect “ . . . to render a cosmology, an image of the universe.“ To explain how things like time, space, and biology work and are organized. Creation narratives: how the world and its creatures came to be (and how long that took, or how they changed over time), where heaven and hell and the Garden of Eden are, and what the universe is made of.

  4. The Social Prospect The validation and maintenance of an established social order. Learning the rules of culture.

  5. The Psychological Sphere a.k.a the pedagogical , or teaching function How to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.

  6. Campbell, via Moyers Myths are the stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance. http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/functionsofmyth.html

  7. Archetypes and the Archetypal Journey

  8. Archetype: An image, symbol, character type, plot pattern, or descriptive detail that occurs frequently in various myths, religions, literature, or folklore.

  9. Some archetypal motifs include: • Death-rebirth • The journey • The exiled child • The battle for good over evil • Heaven-hell • God and the devil • The seasons • The tree of life • The fall from grace • The snake

  10. Literary Examples: • Jesus and the Phoenix show the pattern of death and rebirth. • Moses and Odysseus depict the pattern of the journey. • Perseus and Beowulf demonstrate the pattern of good versus evil.

  11. With a partner, please do the following: • Think about the archetypal examples we have discussed. • On a sheet of paper, create a list of modern day stories that incorporate these same archetypes. • Beside the titles of these stories, list examples of the archetypes these narratives include. • Be prepared to share your answers with the class.

  12. The Archetypal Journey The Expulsion of Adam and Eve by Alexandré Cabanel (1823-1889)

  13. The Four Stages of the Journey • Innocence • Initiation • Chaos • Resolution

  14. Innocence • We feel no division or separation from others. • Suffering is minimal and short-lived. • Death is a foreign concept. • Our lives are happy and pleasurable.

  15. InitiationThree kinds of events often cause a fall from innocence: • death • an awareness of evil • a sexual awakening

  16. Chaos The state of chaos is where all art is created.

  17. Chaos • In chaos, the hero struggles to reconcile the information revealed to him through his initiatory experience and move on—despite the belief that the future holds only more pain and unrelieved suffering. • For many, the desire is to move backwards, to return to a state of innocence, or to employ denial against what they do not want to acknowledge.

  18. Resolution • The hero who advances to the fourth stage (resolution) does so with open eyes. • This hero is not defeated by the knowledge he has gained. Instead, he transforms this experience into wisdom. • It is important to remember that the true hero is not that person who has learned how to evade the knowledge of the fall. Instead, he or she has integrated it into a wider, fuller, and truer vision of the world.

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