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The hero and heroine's journey and the writing of Loy

Jacey, Helen (2010) The hero and heroine's journey and the writing of Loy. Journal of Screenwriting, 1 (2). pp. 309-323. ISSN 1759-7137

Item Type: Article

Abstract

Christopher Vogler suggests an essential humanity beyond gender and sexual difference lies at the heart of the Hero's Journey archetypal paradigm which he presents in The Writers Journey (2007), yet he still advises readers to go elsewhere for alternative theories on the woman's journey, recommending key Jungian feminist theories including Maureen Murdock's The Heroine's Journey (1990), and Clarissa Pinkola Estes's Women Who Run With The Wolves (1992). Through the practice of writing a screenplay Loy, a biopic based on the life of modernist poet and artist Mina Loy (18821966), I questioned to what extent is the Hero's Journey useful as a metaphoric aid in supporting the development of a screenplay with two female protagonists, and to what extent does the paradigm have a masculine bias? This article first sets out the principles of Vogler's Hero's Journey and Murdock's Heroine's Journey cycle. I then explore the strengths and weaknesses of both models as creative aids during the development of my screenplay, with particular reference to the development of character, structure and theme. Turning to the notion of archetypes as a creative system for characterization, I discuss how I used archetypes in the development of Loy's protagonists. Finally, I draw on Clarissa Pinkola Estes's myth of the Skeleton Woman as an effective metaphoric aid for the development of narratives where relationships are central. I conclude that while the Hero's Journey has key strengths, models from Jungian feminism are particularly rich for screenwriters developing female-led stories.

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More Information

Uncontrolled Keywords: archetype; journey paradigm; Jungian feminism; Murdock; Pinkola Estes; Vogler; Helen Jacey
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Helen Jacey

Identifiers

Item ID: 17387
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1386/josc.1.2.309/1
ISSN: 1759-7137
URI: http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/17387
Official URL: https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10....

Users with ORCIDS

ORCID for Helen Jacey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5780-0015

Catalogue record

Date Deposited: 05 Mar 2024 09:29
Last Modified: 05 Mar 2024 09:29

Contributors

Author: Helen Jacey ORCID iD

University Divisions

Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries > School of Media and Communications

Subjects

Media > Film

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