Archetypes
What is an archetype?
- Etymology: The word archetype comes from the greek
arche (original, primary) and typos (form or model) thus,
original/primary model.
- In other words, an archetype is an original pattern or model
that is universal, it is the same across time and across the
world, because it pertains to humanity as a whole.
- You find these archetypes in any kind of fiction and in
literature in particular. Here is Carl Jungs definition of
archetypes: Auniversallyrecognizableelementthat
recursacrossallliteratureandlife.
A few examples of archetypes:
There are basically two kinds of archetypes: characters and
situations/settings.
Characters:
-Thehero or savior: he puts his power in the service of others
and, if needed, even sacrifices to save them. (also the anti-hero)
- Thescapegoat: the one who gets blamed for everything,
regardless of whether he or she is actually at fault.
- Thementor: the wise man who gives counsel and direction to
the young apprentice on his initiatory journey.
- Thevilainor the traitor.
- Thedamselindistress.
- etc (Can you find other archetypal characters?)
Situation or settings:
-The gardenofEdena place of youthandinnocence
- vs the Fall, the lossofinnocenceand the life in a world
which is valeofsorrowsandtears.
- Theinitiatoryjourney: the path that you take in your life
that makes you go through trials and tests, which, if you pass
them successfully, make you grow and bring you wisdom to
finally become a hero yourselfetc.
- Thequest: the treasure that everybody is looking for, may it
be the Holy Grail, or eternal youth, or personal redemption
etc
- The impossibleloveor eternallove(sometimes they are
linked)
-Thebattlebetweengoodandevil
- etc (Can you find other archetypal situations?)
Archetypal stories:
Folklore or mythological stories in particular give blatant
examples of similarities in accounts or characters through time
and cultures.
Every civilization of every period has in its mythology:
- An initial paradise preceding historical times
-A creation story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth)
- A deluge story (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge_myth)
- A savior story (Every mythology has a savior: Christ,
Prometheus, Krishnaetc) that goes through death and
resurrection.
- A fight between good and evil.
- A hope of an afterlife in which the human being reaches a
highest stage
-etc.
The origin and purpose of archetypes
Carl Jung (a Swiss psychoanalyst) is the first one who really
wrote about and brought to light the concept of archetypes. He
showed that the same archetypal patterns, themes and symbols
could be found in every culture and every time period of human
history.
According to him this was explained by the fact that humanity
has a UniversalUnconscious.
Indeed, Jung suggested that the psyche was composed of three
components: the ego, the personal unconscious and the
collective unconscious. According to Jung, the ego represents
the conscious mind while the personalunconsciouscontains
memories, including those that have been suppressed. The
collectiveunconsciousis a unique component in that Jung
believed that this part of the psyche served as a form of
psychological inheritance. It contains all of the knowledge and
experiences we share as a species.
Collective unconscious
TheOriginsofArchetypes
Where do these archetypes come from then? The collective
unconscious, Jung believed, was where these archetypes exist.
Jung suggested that these models are innate, universal and
hereditary. Archetypes are unlearned and act to organize how
we experience certain things.
What do you think of this theory? Do you agree?
What other explanation could you give for the unquestionable
existence of these archetypes?
Archetypal literary criticism
NorthropFryeis the most famous advocate of archetypal literary
criticism. According, to him, it is by looking for and studying the
deeper archetypal form of a text that you reach its true meaning.
He had a theory in particular linking the naturalcyclesofthe
earthandlife, archetypes, and literarygenres.
daily / seasonal / human myth (based upon an literary genre
cycle archetypal pattern of
human
experience)
dawn / spring / birth the birth, revival, romance
resurrection of
the hero
zenith / summer / the triumph, marriage or comedy; pastoral; idyll
marriage or apotheosis of the hero
triumph
sunset / autumn / the fall, sacrifice, isolation tragedy; elegy
impending or
death death of the hero
night / winter / dissolution the unheroic nature of the satire
hero
Frye points out that all literary genres are initially derived from
and thus variations on the questmyth. All myths are basically
concerned, that is, with some kind of quest to accomplish some
sort of goal. Each genre gestures towards a particular kind of
humanquest, that is, one involving the protagonist in a specific
pattern of actions. In other words, the hero may triumph (comedy),
fail or be killed (tragedy), be reborn (romance) and/or be the
object of criticism rather than adulation (satire). Each pattern of
actions and thus each genre are traceable and thus correspond to a
particular cycle, especially of the seasons: comedy--summer /
midday; tragedy autumn / dusk; satire winter / night; and
romance --spring / morning. Literary history, he contends, may be
divided into particular stages in which any one of the
genres/archetypal forms listed above predominate.
As a conclusion, it is important to understand
that archetypes always belong to the greater
pattern of the journey, a journey initiated by
a quest. The hero is on a quest, this quest
initiates a journey, a journey that is made
possible by all the other archetypal
characters, situations that he will find along
the way.
