Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: Joseph Campbell on the Art of James Joyce

by Joseph Campbell

Mythic Worlds, Modern Words provides a representation of Campbell’s published writing, lectures on Joyce, and exchanges with his audiences, from his obituary notice on Joyce in 1941 to lectures delivered a few years before Campbell’s death. Joyce scholar Edmund L. Epstein has arranged this material as running commentary on A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake. With a new foreword by Phil Cousineau for this Collected Works edition, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words is both an introduction to the major work of Joyce and a representative portrait of Joseph Campbell as a critic of Joyce. It is also a major contribution to Joyce criticism, the fruit of a lifetime’s meditation on the great Irish writer’s writings.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Art, Ireland, Anthropology, Literature

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles.

Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities. 


After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.


Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.


Reviews

[Yvonne Flint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful analysis of the myths employed by Joyce. I've read and loved Portrait and Ulysses. Maybe I'm finally old enough for the Wake ...

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really enhanced my enjoyment of Ulysses. I was trying to read it on my own and was making a fair go of it until I got to Cyclops when I almost threw in the towel. The note in my journal is, "Okay. What the h--- was that?"

I picked up Mythic Worlds, Modern Words and Campbell very eloquently answered that and many other questions.

This isn't super-detailed, but it gives the overview of the myths and other classics used while writing the novel. Campbell's style is accessible and a joy to read (or perhaps that was just in comparison with Ulysses).

I only read the Ulysses portion of the book, but it's staying on my shelf for when I read Portrait and Finnegans Wake.

Check out my review of Ulysses for more about my take on Campbell's book.

[David Melbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started first time: March 11, 2004; Finished: March 26, 2004.

Very cool. A lot of this material I am familiar with and it is wonderful to have it all put together in one book. . .

Well done and very helpful in understanding what James Joyce's art was all about.

I'll be reading this one again, and again, and again, and again, and . . .

Joe would have been 100 today! --From A Reader's Journal, by d r melbie.

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Started April 7, 2013: Reading this again, for the second time. Finished: April 25, 2013.

Joe was the best at fleshing out Joyce! A must read for fans of both of these men.

[Veleniki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea until fairly recently about Joseph Campbell's love of Joyce so this book is/was a revelation to me. Now Campbell has a treasure trove of great works so if Joyce isn't your thing you could consider passing this up, but I wouldn't because you'd be missing out on selected beautiful passages of prose as well as fantastic analysis into Joyce's works. This also helps make it a bit more accessible and infinitely more enjoyable if you do decide to tackle Ulysses or Finnegans Wake some day.

[Susanne Doorn]

Read the full review at http://mindfunda.com/james-joyce/

When you read this book you will understand so much more of society and your place in it. It is an excelent overview of human psychology in mythology and contemporary art. The one thing I regret is that it is all build around the male psyche.

[Chris]

I can't possibly rate this book as it was written for people far more enthralled with Joyce than I myself am. At times I found the book incredibly insightful, and at other times it was off in mystical mumbo-jumbo land (which from what I know of Joyce doesn't mean it's wrong).

[Francisco Becerra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Campbell's guide to Joyce helps to discover the hidden meanings in what seems only oddly intrincate. It enhances the wonderful experience of living Joyce's mythic Dublin.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok I skipped the section on Finnegan's Wake because No but this is THE BEST EVER

[Jas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Joseph Campbell's work. I have enjoyed some of James Joyce's work. I read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and portions of Ulysses years ago, as well as Dante's Inferno and Homer's Odyssey. This book went into excruciating detail in comparing Joyce's novels to these more historic and "mythological" works. It was also my first introduction to Finnegans Wake, and more or less convinced me not to read it, or if I did read it, only to do so under the condition of being either omniscient or totally blitzed.

Campbell's book incorporates or mentions many other works by authors other than Joyce, Dante, and Homer, including Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Goethe, Thornton Wilder (specifically his play The Skin of Our Teeth), Samuel Beckett, Wordsworth, and ancient Hindu texts that speak of Vishnu's dream. The incorporation of all these varied authors and texts isn't surprising, seeing as Campbell's work focuses on comparative mythologies, and how stories, thought, and art are intertwined. Campbell also briefly discusses the bridge (or lack thereof) between psychology and art/mythology, that while psychology views art as "symptomatic," early mythologies are "concerned not with improving the world, but with putting you in harmony with it." (pg. 279)

Overall, this book is a very dense but enlightening read if you already have a general working knowledge of Joyce's novels. Despite many passages of Joyce's work being included in this text, I'd suggest this book be read by someone already familiar with Portrait, Ulysses, and Wake, especially if you didn't particularly like them.

[Dan Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was just fantastic. I didn't expect to like the Finnegans Wake section as I thought some of his interpretations in the Skeleton Key missed the mark. Boy was I wrong. This book covered so much ground and the comparisons of Joyce's three major works Portrait, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake was enjoyable, engaging, and insightful. More space was dedicated to Ulysses but I wouldn't remove a thing - I'd just extend the FW coverage - it skimmed it a little too much. It seems Campbell or the editors were more enamored with Uylsses so there was more and more in depth content. I'll be revisiting this book.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't realize that Joseph Campbell was so involved with James Joyce reading aids until recently. This book I was assigned to help with a lecture for Bloomsday 2019 before the local Joseph Campbell Mythological Roundtable. The quandary was that so few people know much about Ulysses or Joyce that I had to try and create an introduction while using a book that went deep into his writings. I managed, according to audience to do that, and perhaps interest them in reading a book that most don't finish. We'll see what happened when I tackle Finnegans Wake next year for same event.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indispensable guide to James Joyce's three novels. Joseph Campbell, whose abilities as an interpreter of myth and symbolism is unmatched, takes his readers through the thorniest and least accessible aspects of Joyce's novel, providing both a template and guide for the reading of them, as well as a platform from which a reader can dive into the deeper waters of imagery and meaning. I read this book as a warm-up for a re-reading of Ulysses, and I've walked away from it more than ready to take on Finnegan's Wake next.

[Maxwell DeMay · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 / 4 : Read!
NON-FICTION
[Drawing from a wide well of Oriental and Occidental myth, Joyce is right up Campbell's alley.]

A most excellent distillation of a believed unapproachable artist. I had no idea Campbell was such an authority on Joyce, that man does not sleep.

Falls off in comprehensiveness as we go thru Finnegan's Wake, but that's to be expected, and there's no corresponding drop in perspicacity.

I read a collection compiled by Edmund J. Epstein.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I relied on this book as commentary for both Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. My only issue was that I had this open as I read, so the large volume of quoted passages felt a little redundant. But the summations were straight forward and easy to understand.

[Maher Battuti · Rating 5 out of 5]

An expansion of professor Campbell's taped conferences on Joyce called "Wings of Art".
This book deals in details of the three novels of Joyce. A must for any fan of James Joyce.

[Elizabeth Scheller Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read this as I wasn't sure I had read it before... yep, had but still a good explanation of how James Joyce's mind worked.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A re-read. The version on audio tape called The Wings of Art is even better.