A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake is a 1944 work of literary criticism by mythologistJoseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson. The first major text to provide an in-depth analysis of Finnegans Wake (James Joyce's final novel), A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake is considered by many scholars to be a seminal work on the text.[1] The term monomyth, which Campbell used to describe his journey of the hero in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came from Finnegans Wake.
Campbell and Robinson began their analysis of Joyce's work for two reasons: because Finnegans Wake, while widely recognized as a masterpiece, was also widely dismissed as unintelligible--"the greatest book that nobody's ever read"[citation needed]; and because they had recognized in The Skin of Our Teeth (1942), the popular play by Thornton Wilder, an appropriation from Joyce's novel not only of themes but of plot and language as well.[2]
^They published a pair of reviews-cum-denunciations, both entitled "The Skin of Whose Teeth?" in The Saturday Review; these created a huge uproar at the time. For the texts of these articles, see Joseph Campbell's, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words (2004).Joseph Campbell (2004). Mythic Worlds, Modern Words. New World Library. pp. 257–266. For Campbell's story of the "Skin of Our Teeth Affair" and how it led to the publication of A Skeleton Key, see Joseph Campbell's book, Pathways to Bliss (2005).<Joseph Campbell (2005). Pathways to Bliss. New World Library. pp. 121–123.
Volume I: The Way of the Animal Powers (1983) (reprint in two parts: Part 1: Mythologies of the Primitive Hunters and Gatherers (1988); Part 2: Mythologies of the Great Hunt (1988))
Volume II: The Way of the Seeded Earth (Part 1: The Sacrifice (1988); Part 2: Mythologies of the Primitive Planters: The North Americas (1989); Part 3: Mythologies of the Primitive Planters: The Middle and Southern Americas (1989))
Transformations of Myth Through Time (1990)
A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living (1991). editor Diane K. Osbon
Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce (1993). editor Edmund L. Epstein
The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays (1959–1987) (1993). editor Anthony Van Couvering
Baksheesh & Brahman: Indian Journals (1954–1955) (1995). editors Robin/Stephen Larsen & Anthony Van Couvering
Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (2001). editor Eugene Kennedy
Sake & Satori: Asian Journals - Japan (2002). editor David Kudler
Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal (2003). editor David Kudler
Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation (2004). editor David Kudler
The Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction (2012), editors David Kudler and Robert Walter
Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine (2013), editor Safron Rossi
Romance of the Grail: The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth (2015), editor Evans Lansing Smith