The Ecstasy of Being, Joseph Campbell
The Ecstasy of Being, Joseph Campbell
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The Ecstasy of Being
Mythology and Dance

Author: Joseph Campbell

Narrator: David de Vries

Unabridged: 5 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 10/09/2018


Synopsis

Joseph Campbell’s collected writings on dance and art, edited and introduced by Nancy Allison, CMA, the founder of Jean Erdman Dance, and including Campbell’s unpublished manuscript “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the book he was working on when he died.Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye, where for nearly fifteen years they presented a wide array of dance and theater productions, lectures, and performance pieces.The Ecstasy of Being brings together seven of Campbell’s previously uncollected articles on dance, along with “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the treatise that he was working on when he died, published here for the first time.In this new collection Campbell explores the rise of modern art and dance in the twentieth century; delves into the work and philosophy of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and others; and, as always, probes the idea of art as “the funnel through which spirit is poured into life.” This book offers the reader an accessible, yet profound and provocative, insight into Campbell’s lifelong fascination with the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and human psychology.

About Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) wrote classics including The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the four-volume The Masks of God, and Myths to Live By. His televised interview with Bill Moyers introduced his views to millions. Campbell’s interest in mythology was sparked by his love of reading about American Indians and visits to New York City’s American Museum of Natural History.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tristy

Joseph Campbell’s collected writings on dance and art, edited and introduced by Nancy Allison, CMA, the founder of Jean Erdman Dance, and including Campbell’s unpublished manuscript “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the book he was working on when he died. Dance was one of mytho......more

Goodreads review by Britta

Joseph Campbell has always been my mythological "Yoda," so I was thrilled when I heard the Joseph Campbell Foundation was releasing some of his collected works on dance. I was surprised to discover that he and his wife Jean Erdman, a student of Martha Graham and a great dancer in her own right, had......more

Goodreads review by Will

While I have always enjoyed every Joseph Campbell piece I've ever read, I wasn't sure about dance as a central concept. But, in usual Campbell-ian style, it works and works well. His connections to the founders of modern dance (not just in the US, but multiple countries beyond European ones) through......more

Goodreads review by William

The Ecstasy of Being covers Mythology as it relates to dance. There are several essays in the book. Campbell never finished this book, so it is disjointed and doesn’t flow well. I bought this book several years ago based solely on Campbell's name. I read The Hero With A Thousand Faces, you see, and......more