The Hero's Journeys

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Paper code: NEM04361 The ‘Hero’s Journey’: Personal Resonance as Response to Narrative Written by Kori Nemme and Phil Fitzsimmons University of Wollongong Purpose of the Study The overall aim of this inquiry was to illuminate the relationships between Joseph Campbell’s (1991) notions of ‘natural response’ and the shared book experiences of a stage three class using the ‘Hero’s Journey’ (Campbell, 1988). Joseph Campbell (1991) was an American mythologist who analysed and studied myths from around the world. He found that myths are portrayals of narrative and contain a common archetypal pattern of human experience, which he named the ‘Monomyth’, otherwise known as the ‘Hero’s Journey’ (1993). He believed that readers across all cultures and throughout time experience a natural resonance towards the ‘Hero’s Journey’, which encompasses a natural accord with: • • • narrative the ‘Hero’s Journey’ pattern symbolism and archetype 1 • • connections between themes in narrative and the readers’ own life experiences a social, spiritual understanding regarding the like experiences of all humankind Contexts of the Study Joseph Campbell (1993, p. 3) researched the ‘myths’ from around the world, encompassing the religions, arts and written stories and found that all are forms of narrative and encompass ‘the one shapeshifting, yet marvelously constant story’. It is essentially the one deed done by many many different people…a certain typical hero sequence of actions which can be detected in stories from all over the world and from many many periods of history. (Campbell, 1988). Hence, Campbell (1988) labeled this pattern the ‘Hero’s Journey’ because it reflected the experiences and journey of humankind in life, encompassing the experiences of the hero in narrative and also the hero that is potentially within every person. Consequently, he defined a hero

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