Storytelling and Lessons from Joseph Campbell

The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a book written by Joseph Campbell, which came as a Christmas gift for us. This year, due to the Corona pandemic, I had to receive it via post delivery, and it ended up arriving at my place quite late. Needless to say, I think this is a ‘great’ way to start this part of the Honours Programme, as behind this book there is a personal, unique story to tell on how I received it. From the book, there are several lessons that I can learn from.

Storytelling

First of all, I would define storytelling as the art of communicating a message to the audience, using texts or audio/visual elements. It can happen in many forms, ranging from a written book to an image or a music performance. As a result, the audience would use their imagination to process the information. Therefore, the story being told may be understood in different ways by different people.

Lesson 1: Instead of focusing on WHAT 'mythology' is, pay attention to HOW it functions in society

Reading the introduction, I expected to receive a concrete definition of ‘mythology’, as it is the general topic of the book. However, looking closer to the book, I realized it is more important to understand its function in society, rather than finding a concrete and single definition.

Campbell emphasized the functions of mythology in serving lives in the past and present days. Throughout the time, the stories of legendary heroes, nature, or our ancestors - all serve as a powerful picture of traditional wisdom. These wonder tales highlight human’s unconscious desires/feelings and have become a living inspiration for everyone up until the present days, no matter who the characters are and what are included in the plots.

On storytelling, this insight suggests that with every elements in building a story, considering its meaning before adding them to the plot is very important.

Lesson 2: Mythologies may differ but still follow the same pattern (the monomyth)

In the book, Campbell introduced the monomyth cycle and the fact that most heroic stories follow the same patterns (for example ‘The Hero’s Journey’). This means that there is uniformity despite variations across times, spaces and characters. During the process, the hero starts his adventure, goes through ‘ups and downs’ and returns to normal life as a better version of himself. The cycle gives me a more holistic look into myths and its recurring pattern.

Regarding storytelling, this provides a useful resource in analyzing storytelling elements. Moreover, it puts forwards the questions of how we can challenge this pattern in modern days.

Lesson 3: The relations between mythology and modern storytelling

For me, this is the most important and relevant takeaway from the book. Most information in this book is from the ancient society which was quite unfamiliar from my personal knowledge on myths and storytelling.

I was astonished by reading about the difference between our past and present society in terms of the social unit. Indeed, Campbell stated that the social unit is now not a “carrier of religious content, but an economic-political organization”. From this, he pointed out the need to unite the conscious and the unconscious within individual in modern days. Moreover, in order to create a powerful story, we should take the societal context into consideration. It is a reminder for me to explore the art of storytelling through the lens of societal and historical aspects, not just the narrative and its meaning.