Transcript Document

from Greek arkhetupos,
original: arche (beginning,
origin) + tupos (type) =
model, stamp
• collective forms of intuitions
• Unconscious
• Typical, shared images across
human experience
DIFFERENT FROM
Personal Unconscious
• Belongs to one alone
• Repressed infantile wishes and
experiences
• Subliminal perceptions
• memories
• collective unconscious
• each individual's psyche shares certain
characteristics
• mind goes beyond individual
theory of archetypes
• a figure that repeats itself in
the course of history
• formulated of countless experiences of
our ancestors
• Literary Criticism
• explores human psyche
• collective rather than the individual
• Archetypal Criticism
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emphasizes repetitive patterns in man’s life
revealed in literature
some of which are embodied in myths
draws heavily on the non-literary field
focuses on man’s historical
and prehistoric past
Jung believed that the creative
process consists mainly of
successive embodiments of the
archetypes, of fashioning primordial
images “into the language of the
present which makes it possible for
every man to find again the deepest
springs of life which would
otherwise be closed to him.”
• Call:Our hero is an everyday person
exposed to an opportunity to leave their world
and explore other worlds. The adventure may
be introduced by a Herald. If the hero accepts
the call right away they might be provided with
supernatural powers that will help them fight.
• Allies: These are the people that surround
the hero and help prepare him and/ or support
him on his journey.
• Preparation:Our hero prepares for the
journey bringing along the tools that he/she
feels will aid him/her during his/her journey.
• Threshold:This is the gate to the unknown
world. Often depicted by darkness,
strangeness and danger. The hero must fight
the threshold guardians and win in order to
cross the threshold.
Trials:This is the action adventure section of the story. The
hero faces all kinds of tests and trials. The hero is aided by
supernatural help, amulets, powers and allies.
Saving Experience:The hero survives the most intense
adventure of the story, finds his/her life free from the
dangers of the journey, and obtains the treasure.
Sometimes the treasure is a damsel in distress, a ring that
holds powers or other objects that the ordinary world
needs.
Transformation:After the struggle against physical or
symbolic death, the hero must rise from the situation
stronger and wiser.
The Return:The hero must return to his ordinary
world to see that his world is made better. In
some cases the hero will continue to live in his
ordinary world and also return to his hero’s world
as well.
Sharing the Gift:The gift received or the lessons
learned from the journey are shared with others
to give them insight that the hero learned,
reflecting the new wisdom of the hero.
The Archetypal Hero: The Archetypal
Hero goes on a physical or emotional
journey. While on that journey, he or she
overcomes obstacles. Once he reaches the
end of the journey, he or she will change.
The change can be physical or emotional.
The struggle or quest symbolizes the
merging or balancing of the ego and Self.
There are different types of heroic journeys
that are listed on the following page.
Persona: Over time, man develops a mask or stance. it is
what one thinks society expects of him. The way one
presents himself to the world is a result of this persona. The
persona reflects the characteristic roles we individually adopt
in relating to others
Ego: The ego is the part of the personality that one
consciously recognizes as “I” or “me”. It is developed after
birth. The ego should always remain in balance with the Self.
Shadow: The aspect of the Self (see definition below) which
remains unconscious because it is repressed by the ego. The
shadow is the darker side of the personality. Never will it be
shown consciously. The shadow should never be out of
balance with the ego or persona.
•Anima: The Anima is the feminine side of the personality. It is
nurturing, loving, emotional, sensitive and vulnerable. There
should be a balance between the Anima and Animus.
•animus: The Animus is the masculine side of the personality.
It is aggressive, dominating, determined, cool thinking and
sound in judgment. There should be a balance between the
Anima and Animus.
•Self: The Self is the psychic center of man. The entire archetypal
system of the unconscious, the heart of the personality, and man’s
ego make up the Self. Jung defines, “the Self is not only the centre
but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and
unconscious; it is the centre of this totality, just as the ego is the
centre of the conscious mind”. The Self is synonymous with the
psyche or soul of a person.
Trickster: The trickster is often a hero who uses
cunning, manipulation and deceit to reach his goal.
Shadow: This archetype exhibits characteristics that
are considered uncivilized. He or she is often
antagonistic and attempts to hinder the hero in his
journey.
Anima:
This archetype is dominated by the
feminine characteristics of the anima, and consequently
represses the masculine characteristics of the Animus.
Animus: This archetype is dominated by the
masculine characteristics of the Animus, and
consequently represses the feminine characteristics of
the Anima.
Wise Old Man: The Wise Old Man is concerned with
meanings and ideas rather than the actions and
personalities of others,. He is a scholar, teacher, sage
and philosopher.
Seductress: The Seductress, is usually represented
as a female who is beautiful, sensuous, manipulative
and destructive.
Mother: This archetype is nurturing, life giving,
creative and loving. She is known as the Great Mother
and also as Mother Earth.
Child: The child is vulnerable, innocent and needs
protection from the mother archetype.
http://www.dramatica.com/theory/theory_book/dtb_ch_4.html
www.tenafly.k12.nj.us/~eschwartz/ArchetypePPT.ppt
Literature in Critical Perspectives, edited by Walter K.
Gordon
www.coe.unt.edu/northstar/2004/Demos/Using_Movies.ppt
www.tenafly.k12.nj.us/~eschwartz/ArchetypePPT.ppt
Myth and the movies: discovering the mythic structure of 50
unforgettable films, by Stuart Voytilla
Storybuilder User's Manual
http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/persona.html
http://pandc.ca/?cat=carl_jung&page=major_archetypes_and
_individuation
The basics:
• Historical critics see works as the
reflection of an author's life and times
and/or of the characters' life and times.
• Apply specific historical information
about the time period to the text
• History meaning the social, political,
economic, cultural and/or intellectual
climate of the time
Questions to ask:
• How does this information add to the
meaning of the text?
• What does it reveal about the
author’s message?
• Example: William Faulkner wrote many of his
novels and stories during or after WWII, which
helps explain the feeling of darkens, defeat and
struggle that pervade most of his work.
The Basics:
• Cultural and economic disadvantages
in a patriarchal society have hindered
women from realizing their
possibilities
• See women’s cultural identification
as a merely negative object or as
“other” to man, the defining and
dominating subject.
The Basics:
Several assumptions held in common by most
feminist critics:
• Our civilization is pervasively patriarchal
• The idea of gender is mostly a cultural
construct
• Patriarchal ideology pervades what has been
considered great literature
• Such works lack autonomous female
characters, are implicitly addressed to male
readers and leave the woman as the outsider
The Basics:
Elaine Showalter’s Three Stages:
(1) Feminine Stage - involves "imitation of the
prevailing modes of the dominant tradition" and
"internalization of its standards."
(2) Feminist Stage - involves "protest against
these standards and values and advocacy of
minority rights...."
(3) Female Stage - this is the "phase of selfdiscovery, a turning inwards freed from some of
the dependency of opposition, a search for
identity."
Questions to ask:
• Who are the women characters in the story?
How are they portrayed?
• What is the author communicating about
women?
• How does the work define and/or address
gender issues?
• How does the work reflect a patriarchal
society?
• How do the female characters reflect the three
stages?
Create an example from film or literature on the lines to the right.
The basics:
• Psychoanalysis- a group of theories which
concern the relationship between the
conscious and the unconscious.
• Also called the psychological approach
• Psychological critics view works through the
lens of psychology or psychoanalysis.
• They look either at the psychological
motivations of the characters or of the
authors themselves.
The basics:
• Most frequently, psychological critics apply
Freudian psychology to works, but other
approaches also exist.
• A Freudian approach often includes pinpointing the
influences of a character's
• id- the instinctual, pleasure seeking part of the mind
• superego- the part of the mind that represses the id's
impulses
• ego- the part of the mind that controls but does not
repress the id's impulses, releasing them in a healthy
way
The basics:
• Freudian critics like to point out the sexual
implications of symbols and imagery, since Freud's
believed that all human behavior is motivated by
sexuality.
• They tend to see concave images, such as ponds,
flowers, cups, and caves as female symbols
• objects that are longer than they are wide are usually
seen as phallic symbols.
• Dancing, riding, and flying are associated with sexual
pleasure.
• Water is usually associated with birth, the female
principle, the maternal, the womb, and the death
wish.
Questions to ask:
• What are the motivations of the
character?
• What is an in-depth analysis of the
characters if they were real people?
• How are the author’s psychological
conflicts revealed in his or her work?
• What is the appeal of the work to the
readers in relation to their own ability to
work out hidden desires and fears?
Examples:
In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, Mrs. Bennet is a selfcentered woman with the attitude that what is good enough for
her is good enough for her children. She married for financial
security and showed her true personality only afterwards. She
does not believe in educating her children beyond the
information they need to find a husband, but is very single
minded in trying to make her children achieve this goal. She is
obsessive about it, in fact, and refuses to come out of her room
or even dress when Lydia and Wickham run off together
because she is afraid Lydia may have ruined her chance to be
married and disgraced the family with her tainted
reputation. She is much relieved and happy with the
connection when Lydia and Wickham agree to marry even
though they do not love each other.
From: http://www.northern.edu/benkertl/psychological_criticism.html
• Does not designate one critical theory
• Focuses on the activity of reading a work of
literature
• Features of a work– including narrator, plot,
characters, style and structures– become less
important than the reader’s connection to the
text
• Proponents believe that literature has no
objective meaning
• Reader brings their own thoughts, moods and
experiences to the text and get out of it a
unique personal meaning
Questions to ask:
• Which characters in the work do I relate
to? Why?
• What personal memories and experiences
does the work remind me of?
• How does the literature make me feel?
• Do I like this work? Why or why not?
What outside influences affect my
response?
Example: For instance, in reading the parable of the prodigal son
in the New Testament, different readers are likely to have different
responses. Someone who has lived a fairly straight and narrow
life and who does not feel like he has been rewarded for it is likely
to associate with the older brother of the parable and sympathize
with his opposition to the celebration over the prodigal son's
return. Someone with a more checkered past would probably
approach the parable with more sympathy for the younger brother.
A parent who had had difficulties with a rebellious child would
probably focus on the father, and, depending on his or her
experience, might see the father's unconditional acceptance of the
prodigal as either good and merciful or as unwise and
overindulgent. While the parable might disturb some, it could elicit
a feeling of relief from others, which, presumably, is what Christ
intended it to do, and a more skillful critic might be able to analyze
the strategies Christ employed to elicit those responses.
From:http://www.literatureclassics.com/ancientpaths/litcrit.html#Psych
The basics:
• An archetypal approach to literature assumes that
there is a collection of symbols, images,
characters, and motifs (i.e. archetypes) that
evokes basically the same response in all people.
• According to the psychologist Carl Jung, mankind
possesses a "collective unconscious" that
contains these archetypes and that is common to
all of humanity.
• Myth critics identify these archetypal patterns and
discuss how they function in the works.
• They believe that these archetypes are the source
of much of literature's power.
Some Archetypes
• archetypal women - the Good Mother, the Terrible
Mother, and the Soul Mate
• water - creation, birth-death-resurrection, purification,
redemption, fertility, growth
• garden - paradise (Eden), innocence, fertility
• desert - spiritual emptiness, death, hopelessness
• red - blood, sacrifice, passion, disorder
• green - growth, fertility
• black - chaos, death, evil
• serpent - evil, sensuality, mystery, wisdom, destruction
• seven - perfection
• shadow, persona, and anima (also psychological criticism)
• hero archetype and the heroic cycle
Questions to ask:
• What characters, symbols, and patterns seem
familiar?
• How do they impact the meaning of the text?
• How does the work answer basic life questions:
• Why are we here?
• What is the meaning of life?
• What happens after we die?
• What does it mean to be a complete person?
Example: Create an example from film or
literature on the lines to the right.
Resources:
Critical Encounters by Deborah Appleman
Introducing Critical Theory by Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon
http://www.northern.edu/benkertl/psychological_criticism.html
http://www.literatureclassics.com/ancientpaths/litcrit.html#historical
http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1569
http://www.gpc.edu/%7eshale/humanities/composition/handouts/crit.html
http://www.colleges.org/techcenter/Fellowships/grants/fellows01/alexander.pdfl