The Foundational Structures Behind Star Wars
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University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2012 The foundational structures behind Star Wars. Aaron Nusz University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Nusz, Aaron, "The foundational structures behind Star Wars." (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1075. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1075 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE FOUNDATIONAL STRUCTURES BEHIND STAR WARS By Aaron Nusz B.A., University of Louisville, 2004 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Humanities University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky August 2012 - -------- Copyright 2012 by Aaron Louis Nusz All rights reserved THE FOUNDATIONAL STRUCTURE BEHIND STAR WARS By Aaron Louis Nusz B.A., University of Louisville, 2004 A Thesis Approved on April 22, 2012 By the following Thesis Committee: Robert St. Clair, Thesis Director John Ferrè Mary Ann Stenger ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to six different people. First to my family: My mother who always gave me all the love and tuna fish sandwiches I could ever need. My father who is the greatest man I have ever known. And Lauren, who is the love of my life. Second to my committee: To Dr. St. Clair who gave me the will. To Dr. Stenger who taught me the words. And to Dr. Ferre who showed me the way. May the force be with you all. iii ABSTRACT THE FOUNDATIONAL STRUCTURES BEHIND STAR WARS Aaron l. Nusz 'April 22, 2012 The Star Wars franchise is one of the most successful film series of all time. The original three movies, along with the more recent three prequels, serve as the foundation to a vast empire of Star Wars television shows, action figures, comic books, and novels. Millions of people have already been exposed to these films, and millions more will be exposed to it in the future. With such a vast amount of people which continue to view these movies, it is easy to understand the impact Star Wars has had on our culture. But how did creator George Lucas sculpt this franchise? What were his influences when he created Star Wars? Researching this question by looking at the underlying structures led me understand the connections between literature, history, philosophy, and even mythology. This thesis shows the connections inherent in Star Wars and reveals why these movies are the way they are. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDMENTS ....................•.............................•................................................................................iii ABSTRACT ........................•............................................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION ...........•................................................................................................................................1 THE PSYCHIC UNITY OF MANKIND ...................................................................................................•.........8 CARL JUNG AND ARCHETYPES ................................................................................................... 11 JOSEPH CAMPBELL AND THE MYTHIC EXPERIENCE .............................................................................. 16 THE HERO'S JOURNEY IN STAR WARS ...................................................................................... 23 VLADIMIR PROPP AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE FOLK TALE ................................................. 30 PROPPS' INFLUENCE ON THE WORK OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL ..........................................•... 33 PROPPS' STRUCTURE AND PLOT IN STAR WARS .................................................................... .52 MYTHICAL STRUCTURES IN STAR WARS................................................................................................. 57 HISTORICAL INFLUENCES ON STAR WARS .............................................................................................. 89 STAR WARS AND PHILOSOPHy ................................................................................................................95 THE MYTHICAL ELEMENTS IN STAR WARS .......................................................................................... 101 CONCLUDING REMARKS .........................................................................................................................119 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................124 EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE .....................................................................................................................129 CURRICULUM ViTAE ................................................................................................................................130 v CHAPTER I Introduction The SCIence fiction senes, Star Wars, has been called an American epic by scholars, historians, and movie critics since it was first released in 1977. The space opera franchise was created by American film producer and screen writer George Walton Lucas Jr., who has an estimated net worth of $3 billion as of 2010. 1 Lucas shaped every aspect of the Star Wars franchise including the characters, plot, and dialogue into a story that appeals to a large audience consisting of multiple ages, backgrounds, creeds, religions, and ethnicities. 2 Star Wars follows the structural tradition of story-telling explained in the writings of Joseph Campbell.3 In many different interviews Lucas has stated unequivocally that he used Joseph Campbell's work as a model for the Star Wars movies.4 Multiple scholarly works have shown the multiple connections between Campbell's and Lucas's works. What has not been sufficiently elaborated upon, however, are the influences contained within the work of Campbell. When writing his theories about the universality of myths, Joseph Campbell was influenced by the works of Adolph Bastian and Carl I "George Lucas ranks 316 on The World's Billionaires 2010," Forbes (October 3,2010). 2 Joel Martin and Conrad Ostwalt Jr., Screening the Sacred: Religion, Myth, and Jdeology in Popular American Film (Boulder: Westview Press Inc., 1995) 73. 3 Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973) 4 Star Wars Trilogy, Special Edition, Dir. George Lucas (Fox Searchlight Studios and Lucasfilm Ltd., 1995). 1 Jung. S It is important to study and understand the influences on Campbell in regard to the structure of Star Wars because, as Campbell himself pointed out, mythological archetypes and structures are not the only ideas that are duplicated in scholarly works. In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces Campbell states: As Dr. Jung points out (Psychology and Religion, par. 89), the theory of the archetypes is by no means his own invention... he has borrowed his term archetype from classic sources: Cicero, Pliny, the C(}rpus Hermeticum, Augustine, etc. Bastian notes· the correspondence of his own theory of "elementary ideas" with the Stoic concept of the Logoi spermatikoi. The tradition of the "subjectively known forms is, in fact, coextensive with the tradition of myth, and is the key to understanding the use of mythological images ... ,,6 Just as it is important to study the influences on Star Wars to better understand the work, so too is it equally important to study the foundations of those influences. The work of Vladimir Propp will also be discussed because while the work of Campbell was groundbreaking in its own right, the work of Propp pre-dates the work of Campbell by almost thirty years. While Campbell did not directly rely on the work of Propp, Propp's work was very influential to scholars around the world and much of his work did find its way into the Star Wars movies. Without the foundation of Bastian and Jung along with the influence of Propp, Campbell would have been unable to create his own theories of the universality of mythological traditions. By understanding the foundations and influences upon Campbell, we can begin to understand how Campbell's mythological model took shape. By understanding these foundations and influences of Campbell's work we can begin to understand Campbell's attitude toward certain mythological devices. For example, the Campbell model of the mythological tale often treats the father 5 Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973). 6 Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973). 2 of a heroic figure as an opposing force. 7 In the Campbell model of the mythological tale, the father figure is often a hindrance rather than a help to the heroic figure. Why? Because Carl Jung in his writings of archetypes often saw the relationship between parents and children as being one of conflict8 and so as a result one of the stages of Campbell's heroic journey