Joseph Campbell(1904-1987)

Joseph Campbell was an American professor of literature who wrote extensively on the topics of comparative mythology and comparative religion. He is primarily famous for the book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949) which expressed his theory that there was a shared pattern in the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myths, regardless of the geographic origin of the myth. Campbell's theory incorporates a mixture of Jungian archetypes, unconscious forces, and Arnold van Gennep's structuring of rites of passage rituals. While his conclusions have been challenged as overly simplistic, his suggested patterns have had an influence on fiction writers and musicians.