Burton reveals the feminine perspective in this groundbreaking volume inspired by Joseph Campbell’s work on the hero’s journey and masculine archetypal themes in fiction. As Burton worked on Far Away Bird (2020), his historical novel about the Byzantine empress Theodora, he noted (along with a few other writers and academics) that the patterns, themes, and archetypal symbols in female-centered stories vary from the archetypal patterns proposed by Campbell’s hero’s journey. Burton initially worked to organize Theodora’s life into a compelling structure, turning to Campbell’s work for support. However, he found that the structure of Theodora’s life didn’t reflect the hero’s journey closely, so he sought the feminine archetypal equivalents by studying a plethora of critiques, blogs, articles, and books about women’s spiritual journeys. He soon found that very few enlightened him in the manner that Campbell’s work did about the steps of the narrative arc that appears universally in mythological tales about heroes who journey far from home to vanquish a villain or a threat. These steps resonate with people of widely different cultures because they are believed to be archetypes or archetypal symbols—primal models embedded in human consciousness. This is the reason these symbolic aspects ring true in diverse cultures.

Burton’s compelling work is presented step-by-step in chapters discussed and illustrated in a tarot card format. The gorgeous tarot card illustrations help to define the steps of the heroine’s labyrinth and bring these to vivid life. One major difference between the hero and heroine’s journey is that heroes leave their native (home) culture on a conventional journey, but heroines almost always journey inward or are challenged by their home cultures. Thus, Burton defines the feminine journey as a labyrinth, “both a physical place within the native culture and a psychological system of rules baked right into the sacred geometry of the maze.” Burton sees the heroine’s journey as a labyrinth because the feminine journey is not outwardly taken, nor is it linear like the hero’s journey.

The author’s book is worthy of academic discussion and is written in concise, easy-to-follow chapters, with many examples of the heroine’s labyrinth found in numerous works of film and fiction, both older and contemporary. Burton discusses at length the various examples of steps in the heroine’s labyrinth in classics such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and so on, right up to more contemporary film adventures such as Star Wars, The Terminator, The Hunger Games, Coraline, and even more recent novels, films, and series such as Outlander and Everything Everywhere All At Once. Burton points out that some works that are perceived as being dominated by a male protagonist sometimes have a very strong feminine component, such as Stephen King’s novel and film adaptation of The Shining. Additionally, some stories have both a hero’s journey and a heroine’s labyrinth involved, as found in the Outlander series. The many examples in widely different genres that Burton offers fully illustrate how the heroine’s labyrinth plays out in popular work that contemporary readers are familiar with.

Each chapter of this highly informative book ends with thought-inspiring questions and exercises for readers’ review that are also well-suited for classroom discussion. The stated goal of this volume is to help “better harness your ability to translate the archetypal concepts into your writing” and “to see how real stories express the themes in real-time.” Burton previously brought the steps of the heroine’s labyrinth to the public eye in the form of articles, interviews, and speeches about his work prior to the publication of this book. The exciting impact of Burton’s ideas will be significant in the ongoing discussion of archetypal structures and the art of designing female-inspired narratives by writers of screenplay and fiction. They will also have applicable steps for the narrative structure in creative nonfiction, such as memoirs.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

Return to USR Home