One of the good things about my current position is that while I am pressured to pick a focus, I still have quite a bit of freedom to change my mind. So here's my tentative focus:
Over the next 3 years (that's not including this one) I want to study the hero in literature, with particular focus on the epic, on mythology, on communal writing and the oral tradition, and on the contemporary incarnations of the above.
I want to use Superman as a particular instance of a contemporary hero without a single creator, and research whether Joseph Campbell's Hero with 1000 Faces is an accurate model of Superman's story, whether as time has passed and Superman's character and story have evolved his conformity to Campbell's model has changed—if so, in which direction? What are the implications of that? If his conformity to Campbell's model has not changed, what are the implications of that? Does a communally created hero like Superman conform more or less closely to Campbell's model than a hero created by a single author?
I will explore various ideas of hero, from Plato’s notion of heroic virtue, including Aristotle’s conception of the tragic hero, to Jungian ideas of the psychologically significant universal hero. I will research both the social and literary function of the hero historically in both popular mythology and in literary epics such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil’s Aenead, Beowulf, Milton’s Paradise Lost, etc. and with special focus on the contemporary heroic character of Superman.
Will my research lead me to support Campbell's idea of a universal myth? What about non-western heroes? How has Christianity affected the development of Western mythology and particularly the Western idea of the hero? To what degree is Superman a product of Western culture, and to what degree is he a universal hero, and to what degree does he fail to be either?
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5 comments:
i found campbell (or at least that book - i haven't read his other stuff) to be really interesting. i had to read it so fast that i didn't grasp all that i could have, but i thought his portrait of the hero was good but lacking. do you plan on sticking to only western concepts of heroes? i don't know how enormous your project is, but the main thrust of 1000 faces is that myths go beyond culture, so maybe you should look at research of other myths. polynesian myths have maui as a strong hero figure who shows up from hawaii to new zealand.
i'm sure this is exactly what you want: make your topic bigger! but hey, it made me feel smart.
[Voice-over]
Eventually of course, Mr. Moffett ended up owning a comic book store called The Superman With a 1000 Faces, and his resemblance to the "Comic Book Guy" character from the popular animated television show The Simpsons became very striking indeed. Fans will remember that Comic Book Guy had his Master's degree in mythology and heroic literature.
Sounds really cool! However, I have to question your calling the study of "the hero in literature, with particular focus on the epic, on mythology, on communal writing and the oral tradition, and on the contemporary incarnations of the above" focus....:) But it sounds really cool!!!
Touche.
Hello--just surfing around and found this--have you read Michael Chabon's THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY? It's sort of a fictionalized take on the guys who made Superman, and it is very cool. Anyway, you've probably thought of this already, but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case.
Best
E
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