The Power of Myth Study Guide & Notes

The Power of Myth Plot Summary

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"The Power of Myth" is based on the interviews between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers that became a famous television series. It deals with the universality and evolution of myths in the history of the human race and the place of myths in modern society. Campbell blends accounts of his own upbringing and experience with stories from many cultures and civilizations to present the reader with his most compelling thesis that modern society is going through a transition from the old mythologies and traditions to a new way of thinking in which a global mythology will emerge.

Campbell draws on material he has gathered from over forty years of teaching comparative mythology. His lifelong quest for legends and myths of different peoples and cultures started when, as a boy undergoing religious instruction in the Roman Catholic faith, he realized that the mythology of American Plains Indians corresponded with those...
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