Seduction to Myth

Abstract

Robert Walter Joseph Campbell has become one of the most quoted myth researchers, not least because of a film influenced by him (Star Wars, 1977, George Lucas) when it comes to the influence of archaic stories and thought structures on international cinema. It is therefore hardly surprising that Campbell himself uses the medium of film to publish his central statements: In the TV series Mythos (3 seasons, 1999–2011) he comments on and illustrates his central theses, which summarize classical myth theories and sharpen his own perspective. In The Shaping of Our Mythic Tradition (1999) he comments on the psychological impulse to mythical thinking, how the myth unfolded in early hunter and gatherer cultures, how the life-giving goddesses developed into warlike gods, and how the Western imagination was primarily fed from non-biblical myth traditions. In The Shaping of the Eastern Tradition (2000) Campbell devotes himself to Asian mythology, which has often influenced Western thinking: in the idea of enlightenment, transcendence through meditation techniques, and finally in the spiritual journey as a path to death. And in the concluding cycle The Shaping of the Western Tradition (2011) Campbell comments on the Arthurian myth, the quest for the Grail, the romantic philosophy with its return to myth, and modern mythology. All these complex topics prove to be inspiring or adaptable for the analysis of narrative films of American and European cinema.