Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/87318
Type: Thesis
Title: The forked road of narrative in the hero’s journey.
Author: Anemogiannis, Con
Issue Date: 2014
School/Discipline: School of Humanities
Abstract: This thesis is entitled, The Forked Road of Narrative in the Hero’s Journey. The Exegesis accompanying the creative work, Cards for the Samurai, is entitled The Hero At the Crossroads. It discusses perceived changes and abridgements to the hero-quest in literature and cinema. The research questions I seek to answer in the Exegesis, and by execution in the creative work, are: Has there has been a shift, or abridgement in the hero-quest narratives of cinema and literature? Is the role of the ‘monster’—as I term the narrative impediments that the hero must face—becoming more important than the narrative resolution? Are writers of quest novels—like myself—making the jeopardy more important than the ‘grail,’ or prize the hero seeks? Is this a result of audience, or reader expectations? Are such perceived changes being guided by writers and screenwriters seeking a more economical narrative to the plodding hero-quest of old? In the Exegesis I investigate how these perceived changes, or abridgments to the hero-quest may have come about. I question if it is because of incremental changes to hero-quest narratives that began with the original Grail re-tellings. I then trace incremental changes in hero-quests back to classical texts like The Odyssey, and to modern classics such as Moby-Dick. Examples from thriller, horror, and crime genres, as well as an historical overview, are used to see if the age-old narrative where the hero has to first defeat the monster, before attaining the ‘grail,’ or ‘prize’, is becoming pruned. For answers to these research questions, and speculations, I engage with the theoretical hero-quest models of Joseph Campbell, and Vladimir Propp. In the latter part of the Exegesis I discuss how my creative work uses the hero-quest as a narrative device in the light of these theoretical models. I discuss how I negotiated my way through the perceived changes and narrative conflicts of hero-quest narratives. Ultimately in the Exegesis I suggest that there may be an inherent division, or bifurcation in the uniform models of theorists such as Propp and Campbell, and that writers of quest narratives—like myself—consciously, or unconsciously try to bridge this division. Along with examples from literature and modern cinema, and my own creative work, I detail the difficulties this perceived division poses not only for writers but readers and audiences.
Advisor: Castro, Brian
Edmonds, Phillip Winston
Dissertation Note: Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2014
Keywords: creative writing; hero; Campbell; Propp; quest
Provenance: Vol. 1 [Novel]: Cards for the Samurai (a novel) -- v. 2 [Exegesis]: The hero at the crossroads to accompany Volume 1: the creative work: Cards for the Samurai (a novel)
This electronic version is made publicly available by the University of Adelaide in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. This thesis may incorporate third party material which has been used by the author pursuant to Fair Dealing exceptions. If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material you wish to be removed from this electronic version, please complete the take down form located at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/legals
Appears in Collections:Research Theses

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