Douglas Burton, a novelist and storyteller, discusses his groundbreaking book, The Heroine's Labyrinth, which redefines female hero narratives. He dives into Joseph Campbell's concept of the hero's journey, highlighting its limitations for women. Burton argues for a new storytelling paradigm that captures the unique challenges heroines face, contrasting it with traditional male arcs. They also explore how societal norms shape female protagonists' adventures and emphasize the importance of gender-neutral storytelling in contemporary literature.
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Lucas and Campbell
George Lucas used Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" to structure Star Wars.
It helped him focus his sprawling 500-page script and find the core narrative.
insights INSIGHT
Campbell's Discovery
Joseph Campbell initially tried to disprove the universality of the "belly of the whale" myth.
He found it present in countless hero stories across cultures, focusing on male protagonists.
insights INSIGHT
Hero's Journey Defined
The hero's journey is a common storytelling pattern with a departure, challenges, victory, and return.
Classic examples like Star Wars, The Lion King, and Lord of the Rings follow this structure.
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Finnegans Wake is James Joyce's final and most complex work, written over a period of seventeen years. The novel is set in a dream world where the protagonist, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE), and his family—wife Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP) and their children Shem, Shaun, and Issy—undergo various transformations and identities. The book is known for its innovative use of language, combining elements from multiple languages and creating new words through portmanteaus and puns. It explores themes of identity, history, and the cyclical nature of life, drawing on Irish mythology, biblical narratives, and personal experiences. The novel's structure is circular, ending with the sentence that begins the book, creating a continuous loop[3][4][5].
The Age of the Sun God
The Age of the Sun God
Leo Frobenius
Blood Test
Jonathan Kellerman
The Heroine's Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction
The Heroine's Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction
Douglas A. Burton
The hero with a thousand faces
Joseph Campbell
In this book, Joseph Campbell explores his theory of the 'monomyth', a universal pattern found in the mythological narratives of various cultures. He details the stages of the 'hero's journey', which include departure from the ordinary world, initiation into a supernatural world, and return with a boon. Campbell draws on a wide range of mythological sources and integrates insights from psychology, particularly from Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, to illustrate the common elements of heroic myths across different cultures.
In 1949, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces posited the existence of a "monomyth," a universal pattern that formed the basis of heroic tales in every culture. But although he maintained that more often than not the young heroes followed an archetypal journey--which in addition to ancient myths can be seen in everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter--Campbell acknowledged that heroines seemed to have a different story arc, but not one that he had taxonomies. In other words, female heroes could go on the same journey that male heroes did--but often they seemed to be doing something different. They too had a narrative arc, but it didn't quite fit the typical storytelling pattern.
In this episode, Jacke talks to author Douglas Burton about his book The Heroine's Labyrinth: Archetypal Designs in Heroine-Led Fiction, which offers up a groundbreaking new paradigm for anyone interested in stories and how they're made. PLUS Doug sticks around to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read.
The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com.
The History of Literature 
