# Monomyth

- Term: Literature term
- Date: 1949
- Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/monomyth/

> Joseph Campbell's pattern of the hero who leaves home, passes trials, wins a decisive victory and returns transformed. Folklorists criticize it as oversimplified, but it deeply influenced screenwriting and fantasy storytelling.

Joseph Campbell's pattern of the hero who leaves home, passes trials, wins a decisive victory and returns transformed. Folklorists criticize it as oversimplified, but it deeply influenced screenwriting and fantasy storytelling.

**Origin:** Set out in Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949); he borrowed the word from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1939).

## Quick answers

**What does "Monomyth" mean?**
Joseph Campbell's pattern of the hero who leaves home, passes trials, wins a decisive victory and returns transformed. Folklorists criticize it as oversimplified, but it deeply influenced screenwriting and fantasy storytelling.

**Where does the term "Monomyth" come from?**
Set out in Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949); he borrowed the word from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1939).

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From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.