Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Comic Characters: Campbellian* Or Not?, Samantha Matos

Classical Conversations

There exists a peculiar pattern throughout numerous stories worldwide, which Joseph Campbell christened the ‘monomyth’ in his 1949 work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell researched stories from across cultures and used their similarities to determine a pattern that great tales seemed to follow. In this hero’s journey, the protagonist enters a new kind of realm, conquers his enemies, and ventures home with power, knowledge, and probably treasure of some kind. This monomythic pattern consists of seventeen steps, though not all of these steps are necessary, and many of them serve as alternatives to each other.

I propose that …