106-400: Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion . His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of
212-440: A profound influence on his thinking about Asian religion and myth , and also on the necessity for teaching comparative mythology to a larger, non- academic audience. In 1972, Campbell retired from Sarah Lawrence College, after having taught there for 38 years. Campbell attended a Grateful Dead concert in 1986, and marveled that "Everyone has just lost themselves in everybody else here!" With Grateful Dead, Campbell put on
318-463: A "music chapel" in the woods. This became the home of the Maverick music festival , the longest-running summer chamber music festival in the country, still held annually as of 2019. Composers such as Henry Cowell, John Cage , Robert Starrer and Peter Schickele created works that were premiered there. Today, this hand-built concert hall with perfect acoustics is a multi-starred attraction on
424-605: A 1932 journey to Juneau , Alaska on the Grampus . Campbell began writing a novel centered on Ricketts as a hero but, unlike Steinbeck, did not complete his book. Bruce Robison writes that Campbell would refer to those days as a time when everything in his life was taking shape. ... Campbell, the great chronicler of the "hero's journey" in mythology , recognized patterns that paralleled his own thinking in one of Ricketts's unpublished philosophical essays. Echoes of Carl Jung , Robinson Jeffers and James Joyce can be found in
530-554: A PhD in the liberal arts , the discipline covering his work. With the arrival of the Great Depression , Campbell spent the next five years (1929–1934) living in a rented shack in Woodstock, New York . There, he contemplated the next course of his life while engaged in intensive and rigorous independent study. He later said that he "would divide the day into four three-hour periods, of which I would be reading in three of
636-411: A Thousand Faces as chapter epigrams. Dan Brown mentioned in a New York Times interview that Joseph Campbell's works, particularly The Power of Myth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces , inspired him to create the character of Robert Langdon . One of Campbell's most identifiable, most quoted and arguably most misunderstood sayings was his maxim to "follow your bliss". He derived this idea from
742-561: A Thousand Faces , which led to the development of Disney 's 1994 film The Lion King . Among films that many viewers have recognized as closely following the pattern of the monomyth are The Matrix series, the Batman series and the Indiana Jones series. Dan Harmon , the creator of the TV show Community and co-creator of the TV show Rick and Morty , often references Campbell as
848-405: A coeducational institution in 1968. Prior to this transition, there were discussions about relocating the school and merging it with Princeton University , but the administration opted to remain independent. In 2010, Lawrence V. "Larry" Ray, born Lawrence Grecco (then 50), resided in the on-campus apartment of his daughter, Talia Ray. Sarah Lawrence College later told New York magazine that it
954-530: A conference called " Ritual and Rapture from Dionysus to the Grateful Dead". Campbell died at his home in Honolulu , Hawaii, on October 30, 1987, from complications of esophageal cancer . Before his death he had completed filming the series of interviews with Bill Moyers that aired the following spring as The Power of Myth . He is buried in O'ahu Cemetery, Honolulu. Campbell often referred to
1060-470: A female householder with no husband present, and 44.8% were non-families. 35.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 2.71. In the town, the population was spread out, with 18.0% under the age of 18, 3.7% from 18 to 24, 23.0% from 25 to 44, 38.0% from 45 to 64, and 17.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age
1166-526: A humorist, author, and playwright, studied theater at Sarah Lawrence. Peter Gould , writer and producer of Breaking Bad , attended Sarah Lawrence. Lucian Kahn , singer/guitarist of the band Schmekel and game designer of Visigoths vs. Mall Goths , attended and graduated from Sarah Lawrence. Alumni involved in politics include Amanda Burden , city planning director for New York City; Sharon Hom , director of Human Rights in China ; and two former members of
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#17327800276531272-561: A lecture at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, with Lucas in the audience, who was introduced through their mutual friend Barbara McClintock . A few years later, Lucas invited Campbell to watch the entire Star Wars trilogy at Skywalker Ranch , which Campbell called "real art". This meeting led to the filming of the 1988 documentary The Power of Myth at Skywalker Ranch. In his interviews with Bill Moyers , Campbell discusses
1378-467: A major influence. According to him, he uses a "story circle" to formulate every story he writes, in a formulation of Campbell's work. A fictionalized version of Campbell himself appears in the seventh episode of the sixth season of Rick and Morty , "Full Meta Jackrick". After the explosion of popularity brought on by the Star Wars films and The Power of Myth , creative artists in many media recognized
1484-401: A mecca for artists, musicians, actors, and writers, even before the music festival made the name "Woodstock" famous. The town has a separate "Artist's Cemetery". Film and art festivals attract big names, and hundreds of musicians have come to Woodstock to record. Among the major musicians were the pioneer, Bob Dylan , followed by, among others, Joe Cocker . All those musicians were performing in
1590-424: A minimum of reading, believe they are qualified to speak authoritatively of folkloristic matters. It seems that the world is full of self-proclaimed experts in folklore, and a few, such as Campbell, have been accepted as such by the general public (and public television, in the case of Campbell)". According to Dundes, "there is no single idea promulgated by amateurs that has done more harm to serious folklore study than
1696-425: A monomyth of the hero only by citing those stories that fit his preconceived mold, and leaving out equally valid stories… which did not fit the pattern". Toelken traces the influence of Campbell's monomyth theory into other then-contemporary popular works, such as Robert Bly 's Iron John: A Book About Men (1990), which he says suffers from similar source selection bias. Similarly, American folklorist Alan Dundes
1802-564: A philosophy that resonated deeply with the American public – both religious and secular. During his later years, when some students took him to be encouraging hedonism , Campbell is reported to have grumbled, "I should have said, 'Follow your blisters . ' " Campbell's approach to myth, a genre of folklore , has been the subject of criticism from folklorists , academics who specialize in folklore studies . American folklorist Barre Toelken says that few psychologists have taken
1908-1116: A place of alibi for the 100 or so South Bronx residents who were brought to the 41st Precinct for questioning about the murders of the two rookie officers at the film's post-opening credits start. Notable actors include Jane Alexander , Sigourney Weaver , Larisa Oleynik , Cary Elwes , Sam Robards , Joanne Woodward , Téa Leoni , Golden Brooks , Eric Mabius , Melora Hardin , Andrew Lawton , Yancy Butler , Holly Robinson Peete , Robin Givens , Julianna Margulies , Lauren Holly , Tovah Feldshuh , Kyra Sedgwick , Elisabeth Röhm , Guinevere Turner , Merritt Wever, Jill Clayburgh and Alice Pearce . Carrie Fisher attended Sarah Lawrence, but left prior to graduating to begin filming Star Wars . Musicians include Yoko Ono , JD Samson , Max Bemis , Lesley Gore , Carly Simon , jazz singer Stacey Kent , Slothrust , and Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo . Win Butler of Arcade Fire attended Sarah Lawrence but left after his first year to move to Canada. Dylan Brody ,
2014-687: A series of books and recordings that aims to pull together Campbell's myriad-minded work; the Erdman Campbell Award; the Mythological RoundTables, a network of local groups around the globe that explore the subjects of comparative mythology, psychology, religion and culture; and the collection of Campbell's library and papers housed at the OPUS Archives and Research Center. George Lucas was the first filmmaker to credit Campbell's influence. Lucas stated, following
2120-414: A sit-in supporting improved wages and safer working conditions for the college's recently unionized facilities workers. For many years, the college has been considered as being at the vanguard of the gay rights movement and many other progressive causes. Much of the 42-acre (17 ha) Sarah Lawrence campus was originally a part of the estate of the college's founder, William Van Duzer Lawrence , though
2226-567: A test optional school. Those accepted that submitted test scores had an average 1360 SAT score (15% submitting scores) or average 31 ACT score (6% submitting scores). Political activism has played a crucial role in forming the spirit of the Sarah Lawrence community since the early years of the college. As early as 1938, students were volunteering in working-class sections of Yonkers, New York to help bring equality and educational opportunities to poor and minority citizens, and
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#17327800276532332-524: A test-optional policy. On June 19, 2007, following a meeting of the Annapolis Group , which represents over 100 liberal arts colleges , Sarah Lawrence announced that it would join others who had previously signed the letter to college presidents asking them not to participate in the "reputation survey" section of the U.S. News & World Report survey (this section comprises 25% of the ranking). Despite this public stance opposing these rankings,
2438-716: A time, was among the fastest half-mile runners in the world. In 1924, Campbell traveled to Europe with his family. On the ship during his return trip he encountered the messiah elect of the Theosophical Society , Jiddu Krishnamurti ; they discussed Indian philosophy , sparking in Campbell an interest in Hindu and Indian thought . In 1927, he received a fellowship from Columbia University to study in Europe. Campbell studied Old French , Provençal , and Sanskrit at
2544-526: Is a town in Ulster County, New York , United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston . It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park . The population was 6,287 at the 2020 census , up from 5,884 in 2010. The first non-indigenous settler arrived around 1770, and the town of Woodstock was established in 1787. Later, territory from Woodstock was contributed to form
2650-638: Is an alumna. Ann Patchett , author of Bel Canto , is a graduate, as is Donna Raskin, book author and magazine writer; Constance Cappel, author; and Louise Glück , a poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Alumna Nancy Huston is the author of numerous works and recipient of the Prix Femina in 2006 for the novel Lignes de faille (English translation: Fault Lines ). Woodstock, New York Woodstock
2756-428: Is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked. He saw this not merely as a mantra, but as a helpful guide to the individual along the hero journey that each of us walks through life: If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and
2862-582: Is now the steward of the 350-acre (1.4 km ) Byrdcliffe Colony. It is a multicultural organization which sponsors exhibitions, classes, concerts, dance and theatre events and runs the oldest craft shop in Woodstock, the Fleur de Lis Gallery, which features over 60 artists. Voice Theatre currently has permanent residency at the Byrdcliffe Theater, which they renovated in 2015. Byrdcliffe is on
2968-442: Is set at fictional Benton College, which some saw as modeled on Sarah Lawrence College. Sarah Lawrence alums who have entered the entertainment industry include film directors J. J. Abrams , Brian De Palma , Jordan Peele , producer Joshua D. Maurer , Laura Bickford, news personality Barbara Walters , and TV writer and author Noah Hawley . It was also referenced in the 1981 crime drama movie Fort Apache, The Bronx as
3074-578: Is the large Wrexham house, also in the Tudor style, which the college purchased from the government of Rwanda in 2004; this building, once home to the Rwandan consul, has been renovated and is used for various postgraduate programs. At the opposite end of the campus stands the Science and Mathematics Center, completed in 1994. The "Old dorms" refer to four original purpose-built student housing structures to
3180-711: The Bardo Thodol , that it belongs to that class of writings which not only are of interest to specialists in Mahayana Buddhism , but also, because of their deep humanity and still deeper insight into the secrets of the human psyche , make an especial appeal to the layman seeking to broaden his knowledge of life ... For years, ever since it was first published, the Bardo Thodol has been my constant companion, and to it I owe not only many stimulating ideas and discoveries, but also many fundamental insights. Campbell's concept of monomyth (one myth) refers to
3286-652: The Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut . While at Dartmouth College he studied biology and mathematics, but decided that he preferred the humanities . He transferred to Columbia University , where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature in 1925 and a Master of Arts degree in medieval literature in 1927. At Dartmouth he had joined Delta Tau Delta . An accomplished athlete, he received awards in track and field events, and, for
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3392-617: The Communist Party , and were called before the Jenner Committee. Since that time, activism has played a central role in student life, with movements for civil rights and against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and for student and faculty diversity in the 1980s. Also in the 1960s, students established an Upward Bound program for students from lower-income and poverty areas to prepare for college. Theatre Outreach,
3498-777: The National Register of Historic Places with world-class musicians playing there from June to September. Hervey White also hosted numerous young artists at the Maverick colony, including Lucile Blanch , Arnold Blanch , John Bernard Flannagan , Eugene Ludins , and Hannah Small. The town is home to the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum (WAAM), founded in 1919 by John F. Carlson , Frank Swift Chase , Andrew Dasburg , Carl Eric Lindin, and Henry Lee McFee . The WAAM Permanent Collection features work by important American artists associated with
3604-484: The United States House of Representatives : Democrat and President Barack Obama 's former Chief of Staff and Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel ; and former Republican Congresswoman Sue W. Kelly . Vera Wang , fashion designer and former Vogue editor, and Paul Johnson Calderon , television personality and fashion journalist, attended Sarah Lawrence. Alice Walker , the author of The Color Purple ,
3710-461: The University of Paris and the University of Munich . He learned to read and speak French and German. On his return to Columbia University in 1929, Campbell expressed a desire to pursue the study of Sanskrit and modern art in addition to medieval literature . Lacking faculty approval, Campbell withdrew from graduate studies. Later in life he jested that it is a sign of incompetence to have
3816-577: The Upanishads : Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat-Chit-Ananda . The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being
3922-593: The archetypal hero shared by world mythologies , termed the monomyth . Since the publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces , Campbell's theories have been applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. His philosophy has been summarized by his own often repeated phrase: "Follow your bliss." He gained recognition in Hollywood when George Lucas credited Campbell's work as influencing his Star Wars saga. Campbell's approach to folklore topics such as myth and his influence on popular culture has been
4028-528: The college admissions process , gained national prominence due in part to the March 11, 2007, Washington Post article "The Cost of Bucking College Rankings" by Michele Tolela Myers, a former president of Sarah Lawrence College. As Sarah Lawrence College dropped its SAT test score submission requirement for its undergraduate applicants in 2003, thus joining the SAT optional movement for undergraduate admission ,
4134-722: The dancer - choreographer Jean Erdman . For most of their 49 years of marriage they shared a two-room apartment in Greenwich Village in New York City. In the 1980s they also purchased an apartment in Honolulu and divided their time between the two cities. They did not have any children. Early in World War II , Campbell attended a lecture by the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer ; the two men became good friends. After Zimmer's death, Campbell
4240-603: The poverty line , including 12.8% of those under age 18 and 3.9% of those age 65 or over. The town is famous for lending its name to the Woodstock Festival , which was actually held at Max Yasgur 's dairy farm almost 60 miles (97 km) away in Bethel in Sullivan County . The festival was never planned to be held in or near the town of Woodstock; instead, it was first planned for Wallkill, New York , but
4346-701: The 2019 edition ranked Sarah Lawrence tied for the 65th best liberal arts college in the nation. In 2022, Forbes rated it 467th overall in its America's Top Colleges ranking, which includes 660 military academies, national universities, and liberal arts colleges. That same year, Washington Monthly rankings ranked Sarah Lawrence 155th in the liberal arts college category. In 2024, Sarah Lawrence accepted 49.9% of undergraduate applicants, with admission standards considered exceptional, applicant competition considered average, and with those admitted having an average 3.75 high school GPA . The college does not require submission of standardized test scores, Sarah Lawrence being
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4452-831: The Child Development Institute, the Empowering Teachers Program , the Community Writers program, the Office of Community Partnership, and the Fulbright High School Writers Program are among the many programs founded since the 1970s to provide services to the larger community. In the late 1980s, students occupied Westlands, the main administrative building for the campus, in a sit-in for wider diversity. Students occupied Westlands again in 2016, in
4558-513: The English Tudor architectural style found on most of the older buildings in the area, with thick plaster walls, hardwood floors, and leaded windows (since replaced with more energy-efficient double-pane windows). MacCracken, built a few years later than the other three, is situated to the south of Dudley Lawrence. The original elegant living rooms that were found in each building, excepting MacCracken, are now used as classrooms. Designed by
4664-780: The Mind : I came to the conclusion after American Graffiti that what's valuable for me is to set standards, not to show people the world the way it is... around the period of this realization… it came to me that there really was no modern use of mythology... The Western was possibly the last generically American fairy tale , telling us about our values. And once the Western disappeared, nothing has ever taken its place. In literature we were going off into science fiction… so that's when I started doing more strenuous research on fairy tales, folklore , and mythology , and I started reading Joe's books. Before that I hadn't read any of Joe's books… It
4770-645: The National Register of Historic Places and is a haven for today's artists. In 1981, the town hosted the Woodstock Jazz Festival , a celebration of the Creative Music Studio , an organization founded in 1971 by Karl Berger and Ornette Coleman . The show featured Jack Dejohnette , Chick Corea , Pat Metheny , Anthony Braxton , Lee Konitz , and Miroslav Vitouš , among others. On April 19–22, 2012, Woodstock hosted
4876-629: The Sarah Lawrence College War Board, organized by students in the fall of 1942, sought to aid troops fighting in World War II . During a time when the college's enrollment consisted of only 293 students, 204 signed up as volunteers during the first week of the War Board. During the so-called McCarthy Years , a number of Sarah Lawrence's faculty members were accused by the American Legion of being sympathetic to
4982-655: The Steinbecks. Campbell had an affair with Carol. On the Monterey Peninsula , Campbell, like John Steinbeck, fell under the spell of the marine biologist Ed Ricketts (the model for "Doc" in Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row as well as central characters in several other novels). Campbell lived for a while next door to Ricketts, participated in professional and social activities at his neighbor's, and accompanied him, along with Xenia and Sasha Kashevaroff, on
5088-661: The Summer School of the Art Students League of New York in the area, primarily for landscape painting. Ever since, Woodstock has been considered an active artists colony. From 1915 through 1931, Hervey White's Maverick Art Colony held the Maverick Festivals, "in which hundreds of free spirits gathered each summer for music, art, theater and drunken orgies in the woods." A series of Woodstock Sound-Outs were staged at Pan Copeland's farm just over
5194-612: The Woodstock Writers Festival. Ann Hood , Augusten Burroughs , Shalom Auslander , Kurt Andersen and Ned Leavitt spoke and offered workshops on a variety of topics related to literature. Woodstock is the home of the Woodstock Film Festival , founded in 2000. The Woodstock Film Festival is an Oscar®-qualifying festival in the short film categories - Live Action Short Film, Animated Short Film, and Documentary Short Film. The town has long been
5300-497: The buildings' primary stairwells are found. With the exception of the large apartments in Rothschild, these dorms typically house first-year students. The Mead Way Houses are the eight former private homes that stand along the steep hill of Mead Way on the college's eastern end. The two southernmost houses, Robinson and Swinford, are occupied by administrative offices and the studio of WSLC, the campus internet radio station, while
5406-476: The categories of being and non-being. Those are categories of thought. I mean it's as simple as that. So it depends on how much you want to think about it. Whether it's doing you any good. Whether it is putting you in touch with the mystery that's the ground of your own being. If it isn't, well, it's a lie. So half the people in the world are religious people who think that their metaphors are facts. Those are what we call theists. The other half are people who know that
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#17327800276535512-739: The college announced that it would seek membership as a Division III member of the NCAA . The college began competing as a full member of Division III in the 2015–16 academic year after receiving a waiver to the required four-year 'provisional' period. The college left the Hudson Valley conference after the 2013–14 season and joined the Skyline Conference beginning with the 2014–15 season. The Skyline Conference contains several schools including SUNY Purchase and Yeshiva University which have played against Sarah Lawrence regularly over
5618-665: The college are fine art photographer Joel Sternfeld , poet Suzanne Gardinier , novelist Melvin Jules Bukiet , novelist William Melvin Kelley , novelist Tao Lin , poet Marie Howe , film historians Gilberto Perez and Malcolm Turvey , puppet-theatre artist Dan Hurlin , dancer/choreographer Sara Rudner , Jewish historian Glenn Dynner , philosopher Michael Peter Davis , and economist Franklin Delano Roosevelt III . In 2005, current faculty member Eduardo Lago won
5724-458: The college at the beginning of his career. Argentinian choreographer Anabella Lenzu, work in New York City, is an adjunct professor teaching modern, ballet, and dance history. Rose Anne Thom taught dance history, Labanotation and pedagogy for both undergraduate and graduate students. Randall Jarrell taught at Sarah Lawrence College following military service in World War II . Jarrell's 1954 novel Pictures from an Institution , an academic satire,
5830-461: The college completed construction of a modern visual arts facility, the Monika A. and Charles A. Heimbold Visual Arts Center, with sleek architecture and environmentally friendly aspects which earned the college national press attention. Just down the road is Hill House, a six-story apartment building purchased by the college in the late 1990s that now lodges students. Across the street from Hill House
5936-408: The college does not have SAT data to send to U.S. News for its national survey. Of this decision, Myers states, "We are a writing-intensive school, and the information produced by SAT scores added little to our ability to predict how a student would do at our college; it did, however, do much to bias admission in favor of those who could afford expensive coaching sessions." At the time, Sarah Lawrence
6042-488: The college has more than doubled its size since Lawrence bequeathed his estate to the college in 1926. The terrain is characterized by dramatic outcroppings of exposed bedrock shaded by large oak and elm trees. Many of the older buildings are in the Tudor Revival architecture style that was popular in the area during the early 20th century, and many of the college's newer buildings attempt an updated interpretation of
6148-549: The college. Taylor was elected president at age 30, maintained a friendship with the educational philosopher John Dewey , and worked to employ the Dewey method at Sarah Lawrence. Taylor spent much of his career calling for educational reform in the United States, using the success of Sarah Lawrence as an example of the possibilities of a personalized, modern, and rigorous approach to higher education . Sarah Lawrence became
6254-578: The gardener and caretaker at the Lyman Estate at Waltham, where his son Charles William Campbell grew up and became a successful salesman at a department store prior to establishing his hosiery business. During his childhood, he moved with his family to New Rochelle, New York . In 1919, a fire destroyed the family home in New Rochelle, killing his maternal grandmother and injuring his father, who tried to save her. In 1921, Campbell graduated from
6360-509: The immediate north of Westlands in what is frequently referred to as the "central campus". Dudley Lawrence, one of the sons of William and Sarah Lawrence, achieved the remarkable feat of constructing three of these buildings in one year (1926–1927). The halls were designed by William Augustus Bates, who repeated the Neo-Tudor style of Westlands through the use of stone and timber materials, and mansard roofs. The interiors are also in keeping with
6466-421: The late 1990s called Star Wars: The Magic of Myth , which discussed the ways in which Campbell's work shaped the Star Wars films. Many filmmakers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have acknowledged the influence of Campbell's work on their own craft. Christopher Vogler , a Hollywood screenwriter, created a seven-page company memo based on Campbell's work, A Practical Guide to The Hero With
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#17327800276536572-402: The life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are – if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time. Campbell began sharing this idea with students during his lectures in the 1970s. By the time that The Power of Myth was aired in 1988, six months following Campbell's death, "Follow your bliss" was
6678-426: The man who never followed his bliss. The anthropologist Leo Frobenius and his disciple Adolf Ellegard Jensen were important to Campbell's view of cultural history. Campbell was also influenced by the psychological work of Abraham Maslow and Stanislav Grof . Campbell's ideas regarding myth and its relation to the human psyche are dependent in part on the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud , but in particular on
6784-405: The metaphors are not facts. And so, they're lies. Those are the atheists . Campbell often described mythology as having a fourfold function within human society. These appear at the end of his work The Masks of God: Creative Mythology , as well as various lectures. Campbell's view of mythology was by no means static and his books describe in detail how mythologies evolved through time, reflecting
6890-487: The northernmost six houses, listed below, are reserved for student living spaces. The northern houses include: Sarah Lawrence College is the member of Skyline Conference of NCAA Division III . The college sponsors intercollegiate teams in crew (rowing), men's and women's cross country , equestrian , men's basketball , men's and women's tennis , men's and women's volleyball , men's and women's soccer , women's softball , and men's and women's swimming . In March 2011,
6996-572: The notion of archetype". Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York . Originally a women's college, Sarah Lawrence became coeducational in 1968. Sarah Lawrence College was established in 1926 by the real-estate mogul William Van Duzer Lawrence on the grounds of his estate in Westchester County and was named in honor of his wife, Sarah Bates Lawrence. The college
7102-572: The oldest literary prize in the Spanish-speaking world, the Premio Nadal . In 1934, Joseph Campbell was offered a position as a professor at Sarah Lawrence College which he held until his retirement in 1972. Perceptual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim was on the faculty at Sarah Lawrence College for 26 years, beginning in 1943. Author Grace Paley taught at Sarah Lawrence for many years. Novelist and folklorist Heinz Insu Fenkl taught at
7208-441: The original broadcast of The Power of Myth (see below) derives from the Hindu Upanishads ; however, Campbell was possibly also influenced by the 1922 Sinclair Lewis novel Babbitt . In The Power of Myth , Campbell quotes from the novel: Campbell: Have you ever read Sinclair Lewis ' Babbitt ? Moyers: Not in a long time. Campbell: Remember the last line? "I've never done a thing I wanted to do in all my life." That's
7314-420: The past few years. The college's official mascot is a Gryphon by the name of Godric. It was chosen in the 1990s to represent the college's athletic teams after a long period of fielding sports teams without one. Unofficially, the student body had long adopted the large resident population of ' Black Squirrels ' as a de facto mascot to the college. The position of silent mascot that the 'Black Squirrel' occupied
7420-475: The potential to use Campbell's theories to try to unlock human responses to narrative patterns. Novelists, songwriters, video game designers have studied Campbell's work in order to better understand mythology – in particular, the monomyth – and its impact. The novelist Richard Adams acknowledges a debt to Campbell's work and specifically to the concept of the monomyth. In his best known work, Watership Down , Adams uses extracts from The Hero with
7526-487: The prime matter of monomyth while the former to the multitude of local forms the myth takes in order to remain an up-to-date carrier of sacred meanings. The central pattern most studied by Campbell is often referred to as " the hero's journey " and was first described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). An enthusiast of novelist James Joyce , Campbell borrowed the term "monomyth" from Joyce's Finnegans Wake . Campbell also made heavy use of Carl Jung 's theories on
7632-549: The realities in which each society had to adjust. Various stages of cultural development have different yet identifiable mythological systems. In brief these are: In 1991, Campbell's widow, choreographer Jean Erdman , worked with Campbell's longtime friend and editor, Robert Walter , to create the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Initiatives undertaken by the JCF include: The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell ,
7738-567: The region, including Milton Avery , George Bellows , Edward Leigh Chase , Frank Swift Chase , Florence Ballin Cramer , Arnold Blanch , Doris Lee , Marion Greenwood , Philip Guston , Yasuo Kuniyoshi , Paul Meltsner , and many others. The Art Students League of New York 's summer school was in Woodstock from 1906 until 1922, and again after World War II , from 1947 until 1979. The Woodstock School of Art has been operating since 1980. The Woodstock Guild, founded by Byrdcliffe artists in 1939,
7844-494: The release of the first Star Wars film in 1977, that its story was shaped, in part, by ideas described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other works of Campbell's. The linkage between Star Wars and Campbell was further reinforced when later reprints of Campbell's book used the image of Luke Skywalker on the cover. Lucas discusses this influence at great length in the authorized biography of Joseph Campbell, A Fire in
7950-525: The renowned architect Philip Johnson in the sparse modernist style of the time, the "New Dorms" were completed in 1960. The architectural style of the buildings is meant to be a modernist reflection of the three older dorms (Gilbert, Titsworth, and Dudley Lawrence) that stand on the opposite side of the North Lawn. The three buildings that comprise the New Dorms are connected by two glass atria in which
8056-527: The same style. The campus is divided into two distinctive sections, the "Old Campus" and the "New Campus": the first is roughly contained within the boundaries of the former Lawrence estate, and the area of the second was acquired sometime after the college's earliest years. The area outside the original Lawrence estate holds the college's newer facilities. Several stately, century-old, Tudor-style mansions will be found among these newer additions, including Andrews, Tweed, Lynd, Marshall Field, and Slonim House: each
8162-418: The structure of the human psyche , and he often used terms such as anima, animus and ego consciousness . As a strong believer in the psychic unity of mankind and its poetic expression through mythology, Campbell made use of the concept to express the idea that the whole of the human race can be seen as engaged in the effort of making the world "transparent to transcendence" by showing that underneath
8268-606: The subject of criticism, especially from academic folklorists . Joseph Campbell was born in White Plains, New York , on March 26, 1904, the elder son of hosiery importer and wholesaler Charles William Campbell, from Waltham, Massachusetts , and Josephine (née Lynch), from New York. Campbell was raised in an upper-middle-class Irish Catholic family; he related that his paternal grandfather Charles had been "a peasant" who came to Boston from County Mayo in Ireland, and became
8374-474: The teaching faculty, and seminars with low student-to-faculty ratio, a pattern that it retains to the present. Sarah Lawrence was the first liberal arts college in the United States to incorporate a rigorous approach to the arts with the principles of progressive education , focusing on the primacy of teaching and the concentration of curricular efforts on individual needs. Harold Taylor , President of Sarah Lawrence College from 1945 to 1959, greatly influenced
8480-407: The theory that sees all mythic narratives as variations of a single great story. The theory is based on the observation that a common pattern exists beneath the narrative elements of most great myths, regardless of their origin or time of creation. Campbell often referred to the ideas of Adolf Bastian and his distinction between what he called "folk" and "elementary" ideas, the latter referring to
8586-415: The three-hour periods, and free one of them ... I would get nine hours of sheer reading done a day. And this went on for five years straight." Campbell traveled to California for a year (1931–1932), continuing his independent studies and becoming a close friend of the budding writer John Steinbeck and his wife Carol. Campbell had met Carol's sister, Idell, on a Honolulu cruise and she introduced him to
8692-569: The time to become familiar with the complexities of folklore, and that, historically, Jung-influenced psychologists and authors have tended to build complex theories around single versions of a tale that support a theory or a proposal. To illustrate his point, Toelken employs Clarissa Pinkola Estés 's (1992) Women Who Run with the Wolves , citing its inaccurate representation of the folklore record, and Campbell's "monomyth" approach as another. Regarding Campbell, Toelken writes, "Campbell could construct
8798-540: The town has a total area of 67.8 square miles (175.7 km ), of which 67.3 square miles (174.3 km ) is land and 0.54 square miles (1.4 km ), or 0.80%, is water. The northern town line is the border of Greene County . As of the census of 2000, there were 6,241 people, 2,946 households, and 1,626 families residing in the town. The population density was 92.5 people per square mile (35.7 people/km ). There were 3,847 housing units at an average density of 57.0 per square mile (22.0/km ). The racial makeup of
8904-577: The town line in Saugerties from 1967 to 1970. These featured folk and rock acts such as Richie Havens , Paul Butterfield , Dave van Ronk and Van Morrison and were identified with Woodstock's reputation as a summer arts colony. The Sound-Outs inspired the original Woodstock Festival 's organizers to plan their concert at the Winston Farm in Saugerties. "The Sound-Outs just had a great feel", said Woodstock Festival producer Michael Lang. "And it
9010-412: The town was 94.25% white , 1.30% black or African American , 0.21% Native American , 1.57% Asian , 0.02% Pacific Islander , 0.79% from other races , and 1.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.56% of the population. There were 2,946 households, out of which 21.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.2% were married couples living together, 7.9% had
9116-475: The towns of Middletown (1789), Windham (1798), Shandaken (1804), and Olive (1853). Woodstock played host to numerous Hudson River School painters during the late 1800s. The Arts and Crafts Movement came to Woodstock in 1902, with the arrival of Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead , Bolton Brown and Hervey White , who formed the Byrdcliffe Colony . In 1906, L. Birge Harrison and others founded
9222-594: The various stages of a hero's adventure through the story, stages such as the Call to Adventure, Receiving Supernatural Aid, Meeting with the Goddess /Atonement with the Father and Return . These stages, as well as the symbols one encounters throughout the story, provide the necessary metaphors to express the spiritual truths the story is trying to convey. Metaphors for Campbell, in contrast with similes which make use of
9328-644: The way in which Lucas used The Hero's Journey in the Star Wars films (IV, V, and VI) to re-invent the mythology for the contemporary viewer. Moyers and Lucas filmed an interview 12 years later in 1999 called the Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bill Moyers to further discuss the impact of Campbell's work on Lucas' films. In addition, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution sponsored an exhibit during
9434-465: The word like , pretend to a literal interpretation of what they are referring to, as in the sentence " Jesus is the Son of God " rather than "the relationship of man to God is like that of a son to a father". In the 1987 documentary Joseph Campbell: A Hero's Journey , he explains God in terms of a metaphor: God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even
9540-606: The work of Jung, whose studies of human psychology greatly influenced Campbell. Campbell's conception of myth is closely related to the Jungian method of dream interpretation , which is heavily reliant on symbolic interpretation. Jung's insights into archetypes were heavily influenced by the Bardo Thodol (also known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead ). In his book The Mythic Image , Campbell quotes Jung's statement about
9646-657: The work of Steinbeck and Ricketts as well as Campbell. Campbell continued his independent reading while teaching for a year in 1933 at the Canterbury School in Connecticut , during which time he also attempted to publish works of fiction. While teaching at the Canterbury School, Campbell sold his first short story Strictly Platonic to Liberty magazine. In 1934, Campbell accepted a position as Professor of Literature at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York . In 1938, he married one of his former students,
9752-521: The work of modern writers James Joyce and Thomas Mann in his lectures and writings, as well as to the art of Pablo Picasso . He was introduced to their work during his stay as a graduate student in Paris. Campbell eventually corresponded with Mann. The works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche had a profound effect on Campbell's thinking; he quoted their writing frequently. The "follow your bliss" philosophy attributed to Campbell following
9858-432: The world of phenomena lies an eternal source which is constantly pouring its energies into this world of time, suffering, and ultimately death. To achieve this task one needs to speak about things that existed before and beyond words, a seemingly impossible task, the solution to which lies in the metaphors found in myths. These metaphors are statements that point beyond themselves into the transcendent . The Hero's Journey
9964-407: Was 48 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.1 males. The median income for a household in the town was $ 49,217, and the median income for a family was $ 65,938. Males had a median income of $ 41,500 versus $ 33,672 for females. The per capita income for the town was $ 32,133. About 6.9% of families and 10.2% of the population were below
10070-530: Was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 60 years in prison. The first president of the college was Marion Coats from 1924 to 1929. She was a friend of Vassar College president Henry MacCracken and William Van Duzer Lawrence. Coats had traditional views of women's role in society that were at odds with her progressive approach to women's education. Cristle Collins Judd was introduced as president in 2017. In 2007, criticism of rankings of U.S. colleges and universities, particularly their perceived impact on
10176-519: Was financially endorsed by the college itself with the production of various Black Squirrel merchandise (including Sarah Lawrence clothing branded with the Black Squirrel image) and plush toys. It is only recently (post-2003) that efforts on the behalf of the college to establish the Gryphon as the icon of Sarah Lawrence have begun to take root. Among the prominent current or recent faculty of
10282-556: Was given the task of editing and posthumously publishing Zimmer's papers, which he would do over the following decade. In 1955–1956, as the last volume of Zimmer's posthumous treatise , The Art of Indian Asia, Its Mythology and Transformations, was finally about to be published, Campbell took a sabbatical from Sarah Lawrence College and traveled, for the first time, to Asia. He spent six months in southern Asia (mostly India) and another six in East Asia (mostly Japan). This year had
10388-447: Was highly critical of both Campbell's approach to folklore, designating him as a "non-expert" and gives various examples of what he considers source bias in Campbell's theories, as well as media representation of Campbell as an expert on the subject of myth in popular culture. Dundes writes, "Folklorists have had some success in publicising the results of our efforts in the past two centuries such that members of other disciplines have, after
10494-643: Was in the country and it provided all the guidelines that I needed." However, the town turned down their permit, and the "Woodstock" Festival was actually held almost 60 miles (97 km) away at Max Yasgur 's farm in the town of Bethel . Woodstock is also home to the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Buddhist monastery, situated at the top of Mead's Mountain Road. According to the United States Census Bureau ,
10600-670: Was not aware that he had been living on campus. While there, Ray started a sex cult in which he presented himself to students as a former U.S. Marine with training in psychological operations . In 2011, he induced some students to move into the apartment of Lee Chen in nearby New York City . In 2013, four of Ray's victims graduated from Sarah Lawrence. In February 2020, he was charged by prosecutors in Manhattan with conspiracy, extortion , sex trafficking , forced labor, and other related offenses, following nearly 10 years of alleged transgressions with students and former students. Ray
10706-553: Was once a private estate, purchased by the college during periods of growth and expansion. The more modest Tudor houses along Mead Way, which also had been private residences, now serve as dormitories for students at the college. "Slonim Woods" is a group of newer, townhouse-style dormitories, built on the grounds of Slonim House. The Campbell Sports Center was constructed in 1998 in response to an increased focus on physical fitness and sports. This facility includes an indoor pool, gymnasium, track, squash courts, and weight rooms. In 2004,
10812-400: Was originally intended to provide instruction in the arts and humanities for women. A major component of the college's early curriculum was "productive leisure", wherein students were required to work for eight hours weekly in such fields as modeling, shorthand, typewriting, applying makeup, and gardening. Its pedagogy combined independent research projects which were individually supervised by
10918-507: Was relocated to Bethel after Wallkill withdrew. The 1903 Byrdcliffe art colony is one of the nation's oldest Arts & Crafts colonies. It brought the first artists to Woodstock to teach and produce furniture, metal works, ceramics , and weaving and established Woodstock's first painting school. Byrdcliffe forever changed the cultural landscape of the Town of Woodstock. In 1916, utopian philosopher and poet Hervey White built
11024-513: Was the only American college that completely disregarded SAT scores in its admission process. In the same The Washington Post article, Myers stated that she was informed by the U.S. News & World Report that if no SAT scores were submitted, U.S. News would "make up a number" to use in its magazines. She further argues that if the college were to decide to stop sending all data to U.S. News & World Report , their ranking would be artificially decreased. Sarah Lawrence College now maintains
11130-499: Was the story of the man or woman who, through great suffering, reached an experience of the eternal source and returned with gifts powerful enough to set their society free. As this story spread through space and evolved through time, it was broken down into various local forms ( masks ), depending on the social structures and environmental pressures that existed for the culture that interpreted it. The basic structure, however, has remained relatively unchanged and can be classified using
11236-511: Was very eerie because in reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces I began to realize that my first draft of Star Wars was following classic motifs… So I modified my next draft according to what I'd been learning about classical motifs and made it a little bit more consistent... I went on to read The Masks of God and many other books. It was not until after the completion of the original Star Wars trilogy in 1983, however, that Lucas met Campbell or heard any of his lectures. In 1984, Campbell gave
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