This thesis aims to discuss the heroic and the monstrous aspects of Beowulf. In the heroic part, I will discuss Beowulf as a culture hero and a mythological hero; in the monstrous part, I will discuss Beowulf as a monster-man and monsters as man-monsters. Beowulf is about a hero who intends to prove himself by killing malicious monsters. The victory over the villains further brings Beowulf the character to the Geatish throne, though Beowulf¡¦s obsession with glory finally results in the fall of his kingdom. Beowulf¡¦s rise represents the rise of the Geatish kingdom and meritocracy; and his fall also triggers the fall of the kingdom. Beowulf¡¦s journey to the Danish kingdom also resembles Joseph Campbell¡¦s theories of mythological heroes. Beowulf has been regarded as a hero for decades, but however heroic, Beowulf embodies some monstrous tendencies. His rationale to kill repugnant monsters and gain glory in return does not work on the combat with Grendel¡¦s mother and the fire dragon, since the ogress kills Aeschere in order to avenge her only son¡¦s death; and the dragon causes strife because of the theft. The monsters, on the other hand, are somewhat heroic since they know the ethics of vengeance.

In this essay I look at J.M Coetzee’s Disgrace from a rather different perspective. I argue that, despite his less than heroic attributes, David Lurie is the protagonist of an adventure and follows Joseph Campbell’s pattern of the hero’s ditto. Furthermore, the goal of David Lurie’s journey lies in self-realization and self-reinvention, which is not typical for the hero’s journey. The Ultimate Boon is usually something else but different times call for different heroes. In J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading, Derek Attridge suggests that David Lurie grows on the reader throughout the novel and is a better person at the end (Attridge 183). This indicates that David Lurie goes through a process personally that changes him in a positive direction. Besides Campbell’s theory, the theories of Propp and Stanford are presented and put to good use as theoretical background. Since this essay deals with both narratology and structuralism I provide short explanations of these two branches of literature criticism as presented in Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory. I then discuss relevant passages from Disgrace in connection with the different stages of the hero’s journey as described by Campbell. I do so in the order they are presented in Campbell’s book.

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Released in 2019, the video game Death Stranding follows the monomythic structure described by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The journey begins with the protagonist, Sam “Porter” Bridges, reluctantly accepting his calls to adventure, and, as he begins to move west, he receives supernatural aid from an increasing number of helpers he encounters along the way. Crossing the thresh-old, into the world of danger and adventure, has him meeting the threshold guardian Higgs, the primary antagonist of the game. During this first stage, the player of the game learns how to control Sam’s movements and how to navigate this world to-gether with the Bridge Baby known as Lou, who helps Sam on his journey. The second stage of the journey has Sam moving through a road of trials, overcoming both the physical obstacles of the terrain and the emotional obstacles of the people he helps along the way. He is at one point tempted to adopt the Bridge Baby Lou, his primary helper, but resists said temptation and continues on his jour-ney, until he is finally reunited with his sister, Amelie, who is threatening to end hu-manity in an extinction event. The lessons he has learnt on his journey – to focus on helping others and only using violence when the situation calls for it – leads him to his apotheosis, which is the realization of the value of other people and the relation-ships between them. With this realization, and Sam’s physical manifestation of it in his embracing of Amelie, convinces her that humanity deserves to live to die another day, and so the world is saved from falling into ruin. The third stage of Sam’s journey has him struggling to return home, aided at long last by the help of the friends he made on his journey. Sam, however, is uninter-ested in the world he helped save, and aims to return to his life of solitude. Upon his atonement with his father, however, he resolves this internal conflict and he is now free to live life as he wishes – as a father to the now freed baby Lou. The use of game mechanics in Death Stranding ultimately provides the player with alternatives to violence, giving way to a narrative that can contain as-pects of the monomythic hero that are not exclusively related to the typical warrior hero seen in most action games. Instead, the game frames the tools of the warrior as the stepping-stone to the hero as lover, who uses more peaceful means to achieve their goals. This exemplifies the potential of the video game medium as a platform for the monomyth, and how games could come to encompass a wider variety of he-roic figures than those currently available. / Tv-spelet Death Stranding, som släpptes 2019, följer den monomytiska strukturen som beskrivs av Joseph Campbell i hans bok från 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Resan börjar med att huvudpersonen Sam "Porter" Bridges motvilligt accepterar hans uppmaningar till äventyr, och när han börjar färdas västerut får han övernaturlig hjälp från ett antal personer han möter på vägen. När han korsar tröskeln, in i en värld av fara och äventyr, möter han tröskelväktaren Higgs, spelets främsta antagonist. Under detta första steg lär sig spelaren hur man kontrollerar Sams rörelser och hur man navigerar i denna värld tillsammans med en Bridge Baby känd som Lou, som hjälper Sam på hans resa. Den andra etappen av resan rör sig Sam genom en väg av prövningar och övervinner både de fysiska hindren i terrängen och de känslomässiga hindren för de människor han hjälper på vägen. Han är vid ett tillfälle frestad att adoptera Lou, hans främsta medhjälpare, men motstår nämnda frestelse och fortsätter på sin resa, tills han slutligen återförenas med sin syster, Amelie, vars förmågor hotar att göra slut på mänskligheten i en utrotningshändelse. Lärdomarna han har fått sig på sin resa – att fokusera på att hjälpa andra och bara använda våld när situationen kräver det – leder honom till hans apoteasis, som är insikten om värdet av andra människor och relationerna mellan dem. Denna insikt, och Sams fysiska manifestation av det i hans omfamning av Amelie, övertygar henne om att mänskligheten förtjänar att leva för att dö en annan dag, och så räddas världen från att falla i ruin. Under den tredje etappen av Sams resa får han kämpa för att återvända hem, äntligen med hjälp av vännerna han fick på sin resa. Sam är dock ointresserad av världen han hjälpte till att rädda och siktar på att återvända till sitt liv i ensamhet. Efter sin försoning med sin far löser han dock denna interna konflikt och han är nu fri att leva livet som han vill – som en far till den nu frigivna babyn Lou. Användningen av spelmekanik i Death Stranding ger i slutändan spelaren alternativ till våld, vilket ger vika för ett narrativ som kan innehålla aspekter av den monomytiska hjälten som inte enbart är relaterade till den typiska krigarhjälten som ses i de flesta actionspel. Istället ramar spelet in krigarens verktyg som språngbrädan till hjälten som älskare, som använder mer fridfulla medel för att uppnå sina mål. Detta exemplifierar potentialen hos videospelsmediet som en plattform för monomyten, och hur spel kan komma att omfatta ett bredare utbud av heroiska figurer än de som finns tillgängliga för närvarande.

This essay investigates the characteristics of Robert Langdon and his female helpers in Dan Brown’s novels Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost symbol and Inferno.  In each of these novels, the quests are always solved by a male-female team. This essay is therefore going to focus on the character of Robert Langdon and his female helpers with the perspective of the Monomyth by Joseph Campbell. The protagonist Robert Langdon is a Harvard University professor specialised in religious iconology and symbology, but in these four novels he is thrown into breath-taking adventures with dangerous situations, however, with the help of several females he always manages to survive. The aim of this essay is to show how Langdon and his female helpers have the characteristics of a contemporary hero and helper, with the perspective of Campbell’s the Monomyth. Keywords: Character Analysis, Robert Langdon, Hero, Female Helper, the Monomyth, Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, Inferno.

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The female hero has been marginalized through history, to the extent that theorists, from Plato and Aristotle to those of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, state that a female hero is impossible. This thesis argues that she is not impossible. Concentrating on the work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, a heroic standard is proposed against which to measure both male and female heroes. This heroic standard suggests that a hero must be human, must act, must champion a heroic ethic and must undertake a quest. Should a person, male or female, comply with these criteria, that person can be considered a hero. This thesis refutes the patriarchal argument against female heroism, proposing that the argument is faulty because it has at its base a constricting male-constructed myth of femininity. This myth suggests that women are naturally docile and passive, not given to aggression and heroism, but rather to motherhood and adaptation to adverse circumstances, it does not reflect the reality of women’s natural abilities or capacity for action. Indeed, with the rise of contemporary feminist discourse the patriarchal myth of femininity is being demystified and, without the myth of femininity to constrain her, the female hero is now re-emerging in certain areas of cultural expression. The examples of female heroes discussed in this study are taken from speculative fiction, encompassing the genres of both science fiction and fantasy. Speculative fiction, which has a propensity for challenging the status quo and questioning common societal assumptions, provides the perfect platform for women writers to confront feminist issues and launch the female hero. The female hero challenges the patriarchal claim that all heroes must be masculine, she defies patriarchal power structures and she demands a re-evaluation of women’s capabilities. The female hero gives women an example of heroic activity to emulate, in place of the ‘angel in the house’ that women have had to bow to for so long. The works discussed in this thesis cover a range of authors, from those of outspoken contemporary feminist, Joanna Russ, to early speculative works like those of C.L. Moore. Lesser-known authors such as Vonda McIntyre and Tanith Lee are also discussed. / Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Modern European Languages / unrestricted

The purpose of this essay is to show that what defines a hero is far more complicated than the prolific author and mythological expert Joseph Campbell would have one believe – in his view, heroic qualities stem from a certain type of chosen individual and reoccurring narrative motifs without taking social structures and masculinity into account. By analyzing the characters Beowulf and Odysseus through a filter, consisting of Campbells model of the “hero’s journey” along with perspectives provided by studies in the masculinity field done by Raewyn Connell and Jørgen Lorentzen together with Claes Ekenstam, this essay concludes, in short, the following: applying Campbells model of the hero does reveal several similarities between the two characters, though it ultimately fails to prove any deeper connection. The aspects brought into focus by utilizing different concepts of masculinity however, proved to be more enlightening, with the most notable conclusion that the various tests forced upon both Beowulf and Odysseus mirror Raewyn Connells concept of “the hegemonic masculinity”, which in essence means that the most elevated masculine qualities existing in the context of the book are also the same ones being targeted by the antagonistic forces present in the story.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:20:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Aldemir Farias da Silva.pdf: 11344482 bytes, checksum: 05dfab8d9a779bb1e7409740b7d34c56 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / As immemorial reserves of the human condition, the myths are present in all societies. They organize cosmovisions, propose solutions to dilemmas, enigmas and contradictions that the real world cannot solve. As machines of time suppression, as defined by Claude Lévi-Strauss, the mythic narratives do not submit themselves to the linearity of history. Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), centerpiece of this thesis, a north-american born in New York, occupies a place of great remark in the pantheon of mythological interpretations. The greatness of his work is more than recognized, although the comprehension of his ideas still remains shy in Human Sciences. It is a body of work that is open to the various cultural devices which, beyond science, include literature and cinema, the latter being responsible for the popularization of Campbell‟s ideas with the Star Wars series. The thesis invests in the life and work dialogism from a bibliographic incursion; it traces the most representative itineraries of Campbell‟s life (Stephen and Robin Larsen) which led him to discuss the functions and potentialities of myth in contemporary society; it sketches the scenery of science in the interior from which emerges the north-american mythologist; it exposes a synthetic archaeology of the figures which constitute The Hero of a Thousand Faces; it exposes the author‟s arguments concerning his treatment of the recurring themes in mythical narratives (cultural diversity) towards the universality of culture (archetypical unity of the myths); it presents the chronological mapping of the author‟s work in the original editions in English and its translations in Brazil; it exposes and problematizes stemming from the research on the Thesis‟ Database of Capes the resonance of Campbell‟s ideas in the Brazilian scientific production (1990-2010); and it presents, in full, interviews with two experts and translators of the author‟s works to Portuguese. The central argument of this thesis is the indissoluble relationship between the author‟s lived experience and interest for the study of myths, that is, the contingencies of life which illuminate the choice of a study theme, above all those which are rooted in infancy and adolescence. Because he is a transdisciplinary thinker who moved in the dominions of art, literature, science and religion, the polyphony contained in his compared study of world mythologies demanded, from this research, a dialogue with authors from different and complementary areas like Carl Gustav Jung, Jean-Pierre Vernant, Edgar Morin among others. The basic interpretative soil centered on nineteen fundamental works translated in Brazil. The thesis has as a horizon to establish connections between science and arts, towards the constitution of a fundamental anthropology of universalist, complex and transdisciplinary base / Reservas imemoriais da condição humana, os mitos estão presentes em todas as sociedades. Organizam cosmovisões, propõem soluções para dilemas, enigmas e contradições que o mundo real não consegue resolver. Máquinas de supressão do tempo, como definiu Claude Lévi-Strauss, as narrativas míticas não se submetem à linearidade da história. Tema central desta tese, Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), norte-americano nascido em Nova York, ocupa lugar de destaque no panteão das interpretações mitológicas. A grandeza de sua obra é mais do que reconhecida, embora a compreensão de suas ideias ainda permaneça tímida nas Ciências Humanas. Trata-se de uma obra aberta aos diversos dispositivos da cultura que, além da ciência, inclui a literatura e o cinema, esse último responsável pela popularização das ideias de Campbell com a série Guerra nas Estrelas. A tese investe na dialogia vida e obra a partir de uma incursão bibliográfica; traça os itinerários mais representativos da vida de Campbell (Stephen e Robin Larsen) que o levaram a discutir as funções e potencialidades do mito na sociedade contemporânea; esboça o cenário da ciência no interior do qual desponta o mitólogo norte-americano; expõe uma sintética arqueologia das figuras que constituem O herói de mil faces; expõe os argumentos do autor no que diz respeito ao seu tratamento dos temas recorrentes nas narrativas míticas (diversidade cultural) em direção à universalidade da cultura (unidade arquetípica dos mitos); apresenta o mapeamento cronológico da obra do autor nas edições originais em inglês e suas traduções no Brasil; expõe e problematiza, a partir da pesquisa no Banco de Teses da Capes, as ressonâncias das ideias de Campbell na produção científica brasileira (1990-2010); e apresenta, na íntegra, entrevistas com duas conhecedoras e tradutoras para o português da obra do autor. O argumento central da tese é a relação indissociável entre a experiência vivida do autor e o interesse pelo estudo dos mitos, isto é, as contingências da vida que iluminam a escolha de um tema de estudo, sobretudo aquelas que estão enraizadas na infância e adolescência. Por ser um pensador transdisciplinar que transitou nos domínios da arte, da literatura, da ciência, da religião, a polifonia contida em seu estudo comparado das mitologias do mundo exigiu, desta pesquisa, um diálogo com autores de áreas distintas e complementares, como Carl Gustav Jung, Jean-Pierre Vernant, Edgar Morin, entre outros. O solo interpretativo básico centrou-se em dezenove obras fundamentais traduzidas no Brasil. A tese tem como horizonte estabelecer conexões entre ciências e arte, em direção à constituição de uma Antropologia fundamental de base universalista, complexa e transdisciplinar