Episode 11: The Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell, in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, theorised that the Hero’s Journey was the one story at the root of all myths. He called it the monomyth and suggests it’s rooted deep in our psyche. This episode digs into whether this is true, and what the Hero’s Journey can or can’t tell us about our society and the stories we write. 

Get in touch on OurStoriesAndOurSelves@gmail.com or @ourstories.bsky.social

Music from https://pixabay.com/users/good_b_music-22836301/

Cover image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heroesjourney.svg 

Patreon: https://patreon.com/OurStoriesandOurSelves 

Sources

Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php

About Joseph Campbell. (n.d.). JCF. Retrieved 1 August 2025, from https://www.jcf.org/learn/joseph-campbell-biography

Batty, C. (2014, June 25). Are you monomythic? Joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/are-you-monomythic-joseph-campbell-and-the-heros-journey-27074

Brinkhof, T. (2024, March 25). The ‘hero’s journey’ isn’t as universal as you think. Big Think. https://bigthink.com/high-culture/monomyth-heros-journey-campbell/

Crawford, R. (n.d.). Research Guides: Library Research Guide for Folklore and Mythology: Tale-Type and Motif Indices. Retrieved 1 August 2025, from https://guides.library.harvard.edu/folk_and_myth/indices

Dundes, A. (1962). From Etic to Emic Units in the Structural Study of Folktales. The Journal of American Folklore, 75(296), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.2307/538171

Frequently Asked Reference Questions. (2015, August 21). https://web.archive.org/web/20150821080004/http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html

Hambly, G. (2021). The not so universal hero’s journey. Journal of Screenwriting, 12(2), 135–150. https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00056_1

Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey. (n.d.). JCF. Retrieved 3 August 2025, from https://www.jcf.org/learn/joseph-campbell-heros-journey

Lefler, R. (2023, November 12). How Monomyth Theories Get It Wrong About Fiction. Owlcation. https://owlcation.com/humanities/How-Monomyth-Theories-Get-It-Wrong-About-Fiction

McDaniel, S. (2020, December 31). The ‘Hero’s Journey’ Is Nonsense. Tales of Times Forgotten. https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2020/12/31/the-heros-journey-is-nonsense/

McDonaugh, M. (2022). Joseph Campbell, History, and Antisemitism: Critiquing the Hero’s Journey. https://freerange.com/blog/joseph-campbell-history-and-antisemitism-critiquing-the-heros-journey

Miller, W. (2020, January 22). Everything Wrong with the Hero’s Journey. Literary Rebel. https://www.literaryrebel.com/everything-wrong-with-the-heros-journey/

Morphology (folkloristics). (2024). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Morphology_(folkloristics)&oldid=125985165

Pratchett, T (1988). Sourcery, Gollancz 

Projection | Psychology Today. (n.d.). Retrieved 1 August 2025, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/projection

The Death of the Author. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Death_of_the_Author&oldid=1292110723

The Hero’s Journey | Criticism | Death of the Critic. (n.d.). Retrieved 2 August 2025, from http://deathofthecritic.com/Criticism_files/The_Heros_Journey.html

THE ILIAD - HOMER - POEM: STORY, SUMMARY & ANALYSIS. (2022, January 11). https://ancient-literature.com/greece_homer_iliad/

The Man Behind the Myth: Should We Question the Hero’s Journey? (2021, August 12). Los Angeles Review of Books. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-man-behind-the-myth-should-we-question-the-heros-journey

Waiting for Godot. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Waiting_for_Godot&oldid=1303358216

Woodward, K. (n.d.). The MICE Quotient: How to Structure Your Story. Retrieved 3 August 2025, from https://blog.karenwoodward.org/2012/10/orson-scott-card-mice-quotient-how-to.html