Creative Writing Commons^™

Crossing The Threshold: An Analysis Of The Hero's Journey, Megan C. Hulings

Theses - ALL

The Hero's Journey is well-known amongst storytellers the world over as a useful structure to create compelling characters and engaging plots, though many see its use as derivative and uninspired. After its explosion in popularity in the 1970s, audiences have come to expect stories to hit every step of the Hero's Journey beat-for-beat.

This thesis will explore the history of the Hero's Journey, from its conception to its modern interpretation. It will examine the individual parts that can elevate this simple structure into a complex narrative. By navigating the works of both Christopher Vogler and John Yorke, this thesis will …

“To Be Men, Not Destroyers”: Developing Dabrowskian Personalities In Ezra Pound’S The Cantos And Neil Gaiman’S American Gods, Michelle A. Nicholson

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Kazimierz Dabrowski’s psychological theory of positive disintegration is a lesser known theory of personality development that offers an alternative critical perspective of literature. It provides a framework for the characterization of postmodern protagonists who move beyond heroic indoctrination to construct their own self-organized, autonomous identities. Ezra Pound’s The Cantos captures the speaker-poet’s extensive process of inner conflict, providing a unique opportunity to track the progress of the hero’s transformation into a personality, or a man. American Gods is a more fully realized portrayal of a character who undergoes the complete paradigmatic collapse of positive disintegration and deliberate self-derived self-revision …