CoP 3 Section of Written Work

So Ive been writing and researching a lot these past weeks, I managed to get a lot of practical work done over the winter holidays and so didnt have that much to do other than write about it, I thought it would be good to put part of my Essay up just to be able to see the progress I have made really. This section of writing is part of my second chapter which focuses on the Monomyth.

The 17 stages of Monomyth Campbell discusses will be compared to the 12 modern Archetypes based on Jung's studies and each will be categorised into the predetermined places Campbell's Monomyth describe. Firstly then one must acknowledge the 17 stages of Campbell's Monomyth, which can be found in Campbell, J (2004), The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 4th ed, Oxford: Princeton University Press, p34, and which are 'The Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Supernatural Aid, The Crossing of the First Threshold, Belly of The Whale, The Road of Trials, The Meeting With the Goddess, Woman as Temptress, Atonement with the Father, Apotheosis, The Ultimate Boon, Refusal of the Return, The Magic Flight, Rescue from Without, The Crossing of the Return Threshold, Master of Two Worlds, and finally The Freedom to Live'. Now looking at the modern 12 Archetypes there are 'The Champion, Rebel, Magician, Explorer, Mentor, Innocent, Creator, Ruler, Caregiver, Lover, Everyman, and The Jester'. Finally linking some of the 17 stages of Monomyth with the 12 Archetypes, results based on Campbell's methods may look like this; The 'Call to Adventure' would involve the 'Champion', the 'Refusal of the Call' may involve the 'Magician', the 'Supernatural Aid' may involve the 'Creator', the 'Crossing of the Threshold' could involve either an enemy that needs to be overcome or maybe the 'Rebel' Archetype as a hindrance, this list of possible scenarios is endless in that while Monomyths can be similar in plotline, are never exactly the same and so can never fully be predicted using the Monomyth pattern. This brings into question, how can something with so many seeming endless variables  conform to a set of rules which limits it in such a way? A quote again from Campbell's book helps answer Campbell, J (2004), The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 4th ed, Oxford: Princeton University Press, p228 'The changes rung on the simple scale of the monomyth defy description. Many tales isolate and greatly enlarge upon one or two of the typical elements of the full cycle',  this explains how varied a Monomyth can be and is a disclaimer of sorts saying that a Monomyth will always entail certain events, but those events vary vastly from tale to tale. This begins to start sounding similar to the earlier quoted Jung in Jung, C (1964), Approaching the Unconscious, London. p57. 'nothing more than conscious representations; it would be absurd to assume that such variable representations could be inherited'.

I think the interesting thing about this dissertation, is how interesting I found the research to be, working on something personally interesting to me was clearly the way to go. I think that will be good advice for the future, do what you enjoy and everything seems to get easier.