monomyth

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

mono- +‎ myth. Borrowed by Joseph Campbell[1] from Finnegans Wake.[2]

Noun[edit]

monomyth (plural monomyths)

  1. (mythology) A cyclical journey or quest undertaken by a mythical hero.
    • 2008, E. L. Risden, Heroes, Gods and the Role of Epiphany in English Epic Poetry‎[1], McFarland, →ISBN, page 143:
      Most male epics follow Joseph Campbell's monomyth pretty neatly; can we expect Barrett Browning to do the same? Is the monomyth a male construct, the “male-myth” rather than the unified myth that speaks for all, […]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Joseph Campbell (1949) The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Pantheon Books, published 1968, Prologue, page 30: “The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation—initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth.”
  2. ^ James Joyce (1939) Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC, page 581: “At the carryfour with awlus plawshus, their happy-ass cloudious! And then and too the trivials! And their bivouac! And his monomyth! Ah ho!”

Further reading[edit]

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