ARCHETYPAL

LITERARY THEORY

KEY POINTS:

•Assumes the existence of a collection of symbols,

images, characters, and motifs that evokes the

same response in all people.

•Carl Jung (famous psychologist) called this

recognition of the archetypes a response to our

“collective unconscious”.

KEY POINTS:

SOME ARCHETYPES:

KEY POINTS:

•SOME ARCHETYPES:

Human Archetypes

Women – the Good Mother, the Terrible Mother, the

Temptress, the Old Hag

Men – the Wanderer, the Trickster, the Sage, the

Hero Rebel

KEY POINTS:

•SOME ARCHETYPES:

Nature Archetypes

Water – Creation, Birth/Death/Resurrection,

Purification, Redemption, Fertility

Garden – Paradise, Innocence, Fertility

Desert – Spiritual Emptiness, Death, Hopelessness

KEY POINTS:•SOME ARCHETYPES:

Color Archetypes

Red – Blood, Sacrifice, Passion, Disorder

Green – Growth, Fertility

Black – Chaos, Evil, Death

Animal Archetypes

Serpent – Evil, Sensuality, Mystery, Wisdom,

Destruction

KEY POINTS:•SOME ARCHETYPES:

Jungian Archetypes

Characters - The Hero, The Scapegoat, The Outcast, The Devil

Figure, The Woman Figure (Earth-mother, Temptress, The

Platonic Ideal, The Unfaithful Wife), The Star-crossed Lovers

Situations - The Quest, The Task, The Initiation, The Journey,

The Fall, Death And Rebirth

Symbols – Light-darkness, Water-desert, Heaven-hell

QUESTIONS/STRATEGIES TO APPLY:

•What characters, symbols, and images do you see in

the text that you have noticed in other texts? (Identify

the archetypes represented.)

•What is the universal function, meaning, or response of

all people to such archetypes?

ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR:

•Provides a universal approach to literature,

and provides a reason why certain literature

survives the test of time.

•Works well with highly allegorical works

ARGUMENTS AGAINST:

•May ignore the art of literature in favor of

stripping the text down to these archetypes.