The Hero’s Journey in the Formation of the Homosexual Identity in Gay Teen Fiction

by Jr, Marlan Brinkley

The purpose of this research was to search for the existence of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey in the formation of the homosexual identity within the gay teen literature genre. Through latent content analysis of six representative novels, I coded for aspects of the hero’s journey using the four stages of Troiden’s homosexual identity formation Sensitization, Identity Confusion, Identity Assumption and Acceptance. I believe I found enough evidence to support this idea. The stages coded for were present in each novel so that there is sufficient evidence to support the conclusion that the hero’s journey is an enduring theme within this genre.