Joseph Campbell's encounter with the writings of James Joyce proved a major turning point in his life. After graduate work at Columbia (where he specialized in the Arthurian cycle, writing his thesis on "The Dolorous Stroke" delivered to the Grail King), he went to Paris to study medieval philology and Old French and Provencal.In 1927 Campbell purchased a copy of Joyce's Ulysses (which was banned in the United States), but could make neither heads nor tails of it. (I have to admit it is reassuring, given Campbell's intellectual reputation, to know that he too was stumped on occasion). Joe, full of exuberant confidence, tracked down Joyce's publisher, Sylvia Beach, at Shakespeare & Co., to express his "high academic indignation." Beach introduced Campbell to a body of work from diverse authors (Schopenhauer, Dante, Vico, etc.) that opened his understanding to what Joyce was doing. In Joe's own words, "...that was almost the end of my interest in medieval philology." During the period of Campbell's studies in Paris and in Germany, Joyce was publishing snippets of early versions of Finnegan's Wake as a work-in-progress, in the journal "transitions" - so Joe was able to follow the evolution of this protean opus long before it attained its final shape. Referring to these sketches, Campbell said, "That's what taught me. And there you have it. It's funny how it changed my career."
Campbell was so sold on Finnegan's Wake - which most American critics dismissed as impenetrable, a self-indulgent exercise in literary masturbation - that in 1944 he authored, along with Henry Morton Robinson, "A Skeleton Key to Finnegan's Wake" - which remains influential in the field of Joycean criticism yet today. Anyone who spends any time with Campbell's work can't help but notice Joyce's influence on Campbell's thought: in fact, i'd go so far as to say an understanding of Joycean themes is essential to fully grasp Campbell's mythic perspective. That's not to say you won't "get Campbell" if you don't read Joyce - but both men are clearly swimming in the same ocean.
For nearly sixty years Campbell followed in Sylvia Beach's patient, helpful footsteps, presenting ever wider audience with clues to enrich the reader's experience and understanding of Joyce's work. Besides the Skeleton Key (which is the first book to list Campbell as author, five years before the appearance of "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" - which itself was tentatively titled "How to Read A Myth"), JC wrote essays and delivered lectures on the subject, many of which have been collected in Campbell's "Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: Joseph Campbell on the Art of James Joyce," originally published by the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF) in 1993.
The JCF released a new edition of "Mythic World, Modern Words" in late 2003. Edited by Joycean scholar Edmund L. Epstein, this volume has three major divisions, each examining one of Joyce's novels - "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "Ulysses," and "Finnegan's Wake" - along with other bits and pieces by Campbell on the subject, including an enlightening question and answer session that concludes the book.
I love it!
The re-release is in every way superior to the original volume. The book is more compact, easier to handle, with a beautiful cover design of Andrea del Sarto's renaissance painting, "Daedalus and Icarus." Whereas chapter headings in the original volume looked more like titles typed at the top of the page of a college manuscript, in the current volume they are better designed and better placed
...but, most important to me, is the inclusion of an index (!), absent in the original volume.
There are so many Campbell gems buried in the pages of "Modern Worlds, Mythic Words" that the binding of my original volume is falling apart, so many times have I flipped through the pages in search of an ideal yet elusive quote. The index in the updated volume makes all the difference!
If you enjoy Joyce, "Mythic Worlds, Modern Words" is an ideal companion volume - but even if you've never read Joyce and never plan to, it's still an excellent survey of the work of the man critics claim is the most important author of the 20th century - and provides clarity and insight into Joseph Campbell's mythic perspective.
Here are a couple examples of thought provoking passages:
"In the field of consciousness research - and also in physics and astronomy - we are breaking past the cause-and-effect, mechanistic way of interpreting things. In the biological sciences, there is a vitalism coming in that goes much further toward positing a common universal consciousness of which our brain is simply an organ. Consciousness does not come from the brain. The brain is an organ of consciousness. It focuses consciousness and pulls it in and directs it through a time and space field. But the antecedent of that is a universal consciousness of which we are all just a part." (p.286)
or this gem, commenting on a passage from Joyce's Ulysses:
"Joyce says we are all in this vibration. The miracle of the Incarnation is the Magnificat of each one of us: Florry Christ, Stephen Christ, Zoe Christ, and so on - we are all particles of the Christ. Very frequently, you know, Joyce brings out key thoughts in a totally contrary kind of language and situation. So his essential message here - and this is the Gnostic message - is that the face of god is the face before you: your friend, a stranger, whomever." (p.151)
Much food for thought here!
