archetypal criticism - … · from sexual urges to archetypes • sigmund freud and carl jung were...
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Carl Jung
• Carl Jung was Sigmund Freud’s student. His theory of
archetypes emerge, in part, from Freud’s early work.
From sexual urges
to Archetypes
• Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were both interested in the role of the unconscious mind.
• They quickly formed a strong bond as friends and colleagues. Jung even looked up to Freud as a father figure until there came a fork in the road.
• Freud held strong to his belief that sexual urges were "the" driving force behind human behaviour. Jung strongly disagreed and felt there were other forces, such as religious beliefs, the drive for power and the need for approval.
Archetypes
• After diving into the depths of
his psyche, Jung discovered
what he coined "The
Collective Unconscious."
• According to Jung, our
unconscious mind is
influenced by our personal
experiences and the collective
experiences of ALL people.
• Jung found similar patterns
of human behaviour in
history, religion and culture.
Archetypes
• Jung said that an archetype is “a figure...that repeats
itself in the course of history wherever creative fantasy
is fully manifested.”
• He believed that human beings were born innately
knowing certain archetypes.
• The evidence of this, Jung claimed, lies in the fact that
some myths are repeated throughout history in cultures
and eras that could not possibly have had any contact
with one another.
Universal Myths
• Many stories in Greek and Roman mythology have
counterparts in Norse, Celtic, Chinese, African, and
Native American mythology (long before the Greek and
Roman Empires spread to Asia, northern Europe, and
the Americas).
Creation Myths
• Throughout history, myths have represented ideas that
human beings could not otherwise explain (e.g. the
origins of life, what happens after death, etc.)
• Every culture has a creation myth, a story, a life after
death belief, and a reason for human failings, and these
stories—when studied comparatively—are far more
similar than different.
Greek Uranus and Gaia
Iroquois Sky Woman
African Bushman
Judeo-Christian Adam and Eve
Japanese Izanagi and Izanami
Australian Aborigine The Father
of All Spirits and the Sun Mother
Patterns in literature
• When reading a work, literary critics look for general
recurring themes, characters, and situations.
In modern times, the same types of archetypes are used
in film, which is why it has been so easy for filmmakers
to take a work like Jane Austen’s Emma and adapt it into
the typical Hollywood film Clueless.
• By drawing on those feelings, thoughts, concerns, and issues
that have been a part of the human condition in every
generation, modern authors allow readers to know the
characters in a work with little or no explanation.
the hero
• A figure, larger than life, whose search for self-identity
and/or self-fulfillment results in his own destruction
(often accompanied by the destruction of the general
society around him).
• In the aftermath of the death of the hero, however, is
progress toward some ideal.
The Scapegoat
• An innocent character on whom a situation is blamed,
or who assumes the blame for a situation. He/she is
punished in place of the truly guilty party, thus
removing the guilt from the actual culprit and society.
The Loner or
outcast
• A character who is separated from (or separates him or
herself from) society due to a physical impairment or
an emotional or physiological realization that makes
this character different.
• Often the Hero is an outcast at some point in his or her
story.
The temptress
• The female who possesses what the male desires and
uses his desire as a means to his ultimate destruction
The mentor
• Mentors serve as teachers or counselors to the initiates.
Sometimes they work as role models and often serve as
a father or mother figure.
The Trickster
•The trickster, in later folklore or modern popular
culture, is a clever, mischievous person or creature,
who achieves his or her ends through the use of
trickery.
•A trickster may trick others simply for their
amusement, they could be a physically weak
character trying to survive in a dangerous world, or
they could even be a personification of the chaos that
the world needs to function.
colours
• Red = blood, passion, anger, violence
• Gold = greatness, value, wealth
• Green = fertility, luxury, growth
• Blue = freedom, God-like holiness, peace, serenity
• White = innocence, purity, youth
numbers
• 3 = the Christian trinity
• 4 = the four seasons; the four ancient elements
• 12 = the months of the solar year, etc.
celestial bodies
• Sun = masculine, both giver and destroyer of life
• Moon = feminine, marks the passage of time and
controls the course of human events, seedtime, harvest.
renewal of life
• Death and rebirth, resurrection as seen in the cycle of
the seasons, the phases of the day, sleeping and
waking.
the fall
• Any event that marks a loss of innocence, a devolution
from an ideal life and viewpoint to a tainted one.
redemptive sacrifice
• Any voluntary loss, especially a loss of life, that results
in another’s gaining or regaining a desired state.
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