The Hero with a Thousand Faces: applying the “Hero’s Journey” to Jihadist propaganda
The Hero with a Thousand Faces: applying the “Hero’s Journey” to Jihadist propaganda
Popular culture is awash with tales of great heroes, often with idiosyncratic traits, who claw their way to legendary status, going beyond the call of duty to serve and protect their homelands from religious or territorial expansion. The Hero with a Thousand Faces was published by Joseph Campbell in 1949 to outline his theory that all mythological narratives share a common archetype, referred to as a ‘monomyth’ or, more colloquially, the ‘Hero’s Journey’. Significantly, in extremist propaganda, this ‘monomyth’ is frequently utilised in conjunction with the concepts of harmony, belonging, friendship, power, and comradery, ideals that may be deemed attractive to marginalised and disenfranchised potential recruits. This chapter draws promiscuously from symbolic interactionist and phenomenological perspectives, such as Goffman’s dramaturgical account of human interaction, narrative and cultural criminology, and employs the conceptual framework of the ‘Hero’s Journey’ to examine specific narratives present in both far right and Islamic State propaganda. It builds on the awareness that we give particular performances of self to specific groups of people and social institutions to argue that propagandists frequently employ forms of impression management to create illusory utopian societies in which there are many social roles to perform. Their recruiting techniques bear resemblance to a medieval reality show which offers both ‘front stage’ components representing powerful combatant lifestyles and violence sadistic fantasies that can influence the direction of performances or behaviour, and ‘backstage’ functions that encompass religious or ideological dimensions to target audiences who may be suffering from a lack of belonging. It is argued that Goffman’s concept of dramaturgy is not confined to the theatre and that its ideas can be employed by extremists through adapting their actions to appeal to those audiences exploiting an increasingly socially-connected world.
225-242
Webber, Craig
35851bbe-83e6-4c9b-9dd2-cdf1f60c245d
Kingdon, Ashton
c432a21d-9395-47d2-bc34-1ee77f63bc5c
16 May 2025
Webber, Craig
35851bbe-83e6-4c9b-9dd2-cdf1f60c245d
Kingdon, Ashton
c432a21d-9395-47d2-bc34-1ee77f63bc5c
Webber, Craig and Kingdon, Ashton
(2025)
The Hero with a Thousand Faces: applying the “Hero’s Journey” to Jihadist propaganda.
In,
Lakhani, Suraj and Amarasingam, Amarnath
(eds.)
The Sociology of Violent Extremism: Theoretical and Sociological Approaches.
Oxford University Press, .
(doi:10.1093/9780197690161.003.0012).
Record type:
Book Section
Abstract
Popular culture is awash with tales of great heroes, often with idiosyncratic traits, who claw their way to legendary status, going beyond the call of duty to serve and protect their homelands from religious or territorial expansion. The Hero with a Thousand Faces was published by Joseph Campbell in 1949 to outline his theory that all mythological narratives share a common archetype, referred to as a ‘monomyth’ or, more colloquially, the ‘Hero’s Journey’. Significantly, in extremist propaganda, this ‘monomyth’ is frequently utilised in conjunction with the concepts of harmony, belonging, friendship, power, and comradery, ideals that may be deemed attractive to marginalised and disenfranchised potential recruits. This chapter draws promiscuously from symbolic interactionist and phenomenological perspectives, such as Goffman’s dramaturgical account of human interaction, narrative and cultural criminology, and employs the conceptual framework of the ‘Hero’s Journey’ to examine specific narratives present in both far right and Islamic State propaganda. It builds on the awareness that we give particular performances of self to specific groups of people and social institutions to argue that propagandists frequently employ forms of impression management to create illusory utopian societies in which there are many social roles to perform. Their recruiting techniques bear resemblance to a medieval reality show which offers both ‘front stage’ components representing powerful combatant lifestyles and violence sadistic fantasies that can influence the direction of performances or behaviour, and ‘backstage’ functions that encompass religious or ideological dimensions to target audiences who may be suffering from a lack of belonging. It is argued that Goffman’s concept of dramaturgy is not confined to the theatre and that its ideas can be employed by extremists through adapting their actions to appeal to those audiences exploiting an increasingly socially-connected world.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 14 May 2025
Published date: 16 May 2025
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Local EPrints ID: 502407
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/502407
PURE UUID: 4db91d80-3342-45ee-ac9b-3f14c55c1e8e
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Date deposited: 25 Jun 2025 16:42
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:32
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Editor:
Suraj Lakhani
Editor:
Amarnath Amarasingam
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