Archetype
An archetype in literature refers to a universally recognized symbol, character, or theme that recurs across different cultures and time periods. These archetypes embody fundamental human experiences and are often used to evoke specific emotions or convey deeper meanings within a story. They serve as a way for authors to tap into collective unconscious and create resonant narratives.
7 Key excerpts on "Archetype"
eBook - ePub- Jane Garry, Hasan El-Shamy(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Some of the chief Archetypes with which Jung is concerned are “the shadow, the wise old man, the child (including the child hero), the mother … and her counterpart the maiden, and lastly the anima in man and the animus in woman” (Jung 1969, 4). Additional Archetypes identified by Jung include the trickster and the hero. Maud Bodkin, one of the first scholars to apply Jung’s ideas to literature, rejects the notion that Archetypes are “stamped upon the physical organism” or “inherited in the structure of the brain,” but interprets them instead as persistent cultural symbols that are passed down through generations via folklore and literature. She states, “I shall use the term ‘archetypal pattern’ to refer to that within us which, in Gilbert Murray’s phrase, ‘leaps in response’ to the effective presentation… of an ancient theme” (Bodkin 1934, 4). The critic Northrup Frye did much to apply Jung’s ideas of the Archetype to literature, although he dissociated the concept of the Archetype from depth psychology. Numerous scholars—including James Hillman, Bettina Knapp, and Martin Bickman—have worked with Archetypes, with varying degrees of emphasis on the original psychological nature of Jung’s work. In 1997, Carol Rupprecht pronounced archetypal theory “a fledgling and much misconstrued field of inquiry with significant but still unrealized potential for the study of literature and of aesthetics in general” (122). Similarly, mythological theory retains a powerful appeal. Cross-Cultural Studies of Motifs In studying the distributions of motifs, one finds that the same object in different cultures may hold vastly different meanings. For example, snakes are found in the mythology and folktales of many cultures...
eBook - ePubC. G. Jung
The Basics
- Ruth Williams(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...3 Archetypes I will begin by setting out the Jungian definition of Archetype. Then I will lightly touch on a few examples with which you will be familiar (although you may not have thought of them in this way), before including some archetypal themes which may not be so immediately obvious, such as number, slavery, love, war, home, sacrifice and meaning. Definition Archetype is a precise, technical term in Jungian speech which Jung first coined in 1919 in “Instinct and the Unconscious” (CW8 par. 270). Originally Jung had used the term ‘primordial image’ until he recognised that the manifestations of universal motifs were not limited to images but also arose as ideas, feelings, experiences and characteristic patterns of behaviour (Stevens 2006 p.76). Archetypes are not to be confused with stereotypes. In everyday speech, the meanings are sometimes conflated. A stereotype is used to describe a hackneyed, trite or oversimplified idea/person. Archetypes can be construed as: • significant events (such as birth, death, falling in love, marriage, war) • characters (Mother, Father, Hero, Wise Old Man/Woman etc) • symbols (heart, crucifix, mandalas), and motifs (adolescence, midlife crisis, heartbreak, abandonment, transcendence) Archetypes are not simply intellectual concepts but are imbued with feeling, which gives them their power to affect us in a most visceral fashion. You know when you are gripped by an Archetype, such as falling in love. Or when you are possessed by the ‘witch’; or the ‘hero’. They have characteristics with which we may be familiar and encountering them in their archetypal form increases their impact significantly because Archetypes are numinous (which means they are possessed of a spiritual quality/energy which increases their force and may be felt as overwhelming). The word ‘Archetype’ comes from two Greek words which translate as ‘first pattern’ or prototype...
eBook - ePubC. G. Jung's Archetype Concept
Theory, Research and Applications
- Christian Roesler(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...2 The classic definition and theory of Jung’s concept of Archetypes DOI: 10.4324/9781003058458-2 The term Archetype, in combination with the term ‘collective unconscious’ and the individuation process, is surely the central concept of Carl Gustav Jung’s analytical psychology. The Archetypes form the theoretical foundations of Jungian psychology. They distinguish it from other schools of psychotherapy and essentially define the specific approach in psychotherapy with its various methods of dream interpretation, working with images and other symbolic material, active imagination, and so on. The concept of Archetypes was – alongside personal conflicts – a main reason for the theoretical differences and the resulting separation of Sigmund Freud and Jung, and marks the beginning of the formation of Jung’s own psychological theory (Kirsch 2000). 2.1 Definition The term Archetype is best translated as primordial image (Urbild). For Jung, these images belong to the configuration of the human psyche (Jung’s own publications on the concept of the Archetype can be found in volume 9.1 of the collected works). Archetypes are structural elements of the collective psyche and give psychic energy a defined form, which alone is formless and imperceptible. As contentless shaping factors they form the basis of every experience and perform human experiences, ideas, and actions. Archetypes centre around the fundamental and general experiences of life, such as birth, marriage, motherhood, death, separation, crises, and so on. They have the following characteristics: According to Jung’s understanding, Archetypes are inherent patterns of experience and behaviour, which he parallels with the instincts of animals (for further discussion of the innateness of Archetypes see Chapter 4.3.1). They are a priori forms of perception and organisation of people’s experience of the world, which means they direct and shape the way people encounter their environments...
eBook - ePubTranspersonal Dynamics
The Relational Field, Depth Work and the Unconscious
- Stacey Millichamp(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Kaminn Media Ltd(Publisher)
...Symbolizing the nature of the journey in specific ways helps us as therapists to perceive the way in which apparently unrelated content is in fact connected. It also supports us at moments when we can feel very stuck, unable to understand why a client is circulating around and around an issue, with no apparent way to break more deeply into what is perplexing them. This way of working also reminds us as practitioners that the power of a client’s personal mythology is far larger and more profound than we will ever fully understand. Clients will often report that being related to in this way brings a special sense of feeling deeply ‘known’ and understood by their therapist, as clinical concepts are replaced with words and images that they can relate to, freeing them to experience themselves as part of something meaningful and significant. Making your own list of Archetypes and stories/fairy tales/folk tales/legends/fables I have had many students and practitioners come to me after trainings to say that they do not know many fairy tales or fables, and that they are afraid that this will limit their capacity to work with Archetypes and mythology. It is important to point out that it is not necessary to be an expert in ancient mythology or to have read lots of books on Archetypes in order to work with this material. We all have stories and narratives that we picked up as children from storybooks, films, or television series, many of which are peopled with versions of Archetypes that are relevant to the world that we live in today. Even well-known people in the media can represent Archetypes if we start asking which qualities and ways of being those people have that we look up to, admire or dislike. If you wish to explore further there is a bibliography at the end of this book that suggests some reading material. If this material feels alien or too ‘out there’ for your practice, I encourage you to begin to give it a try and listen to the feedback that your clients give you...
eBook - ePubA Jungian Approach to Engaging Our Creative Nature
Imagining the Source of Our Creativity
- Robert Sandford(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Our tale of origins suggests that our quest for first principles is shaped by the first principles of thought itself. And recalling the power of the axis mundi, those principles map out a habitable territory; we cannot live in chaos. We ask again, ‘What coheres the created work?’ It is the same factor that sets us on a quest for first principles, shapes a landscape and orients us in it. Now that we’ve played for a time with reason and imagination, we turn to what perhaps exemplifies this play better than any: the idea of Archetypes. Fantasies in the idea of Archetypes: gathering the tale Engaging the fantasies and images that animate the idea of Archetypes, we participate in the creative intent that lives there. This connects us to the idea as a symbol —a gathering of co-constituting images and fantasies into a coherent whole. As a symbol, it is a container for experience, brings clarity and evokes mystery and ushers what is unconscious into consciousness. As we reenact this gathering, the idea also shows itself as a mythic tale of origins of psyche and so of creativity. If myth is an archetypal drama, then the idea of Archetypes is itself archetypal in origin; the idea is a performance of its source. Our mythical tale of origins tells of its own origins and so, of myth itself. A tale of origins tells of what is most essential and offers a path back to it. One path to the essential is through breaking things down to their most basic, universal elements or principles. This is a Dionysian taking apart that awakens consciousness and provides raw materials for creative choices—for bringing things together anew in ways guided by the creative impulse. Archetypes are primordial images and the path back in therapeutic work requires a regression through the personal to the pre-personal, the ancestral. Regression suggests undoing and returning to the source. This participates in Earth Mother’s creative cycle; everything she creates returns to her to be reborn...
eBook - ePubThe Symbolic Quest
Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology - Expanded Edition
- Edward C. Whitmont(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Princeton University Press(Publisher)
...5. Archetypes and Myths I N ORDER TO effect a constructive and lasting change in our lives we must strive toward a transformation of the potentially disturbing or disruptive complexes by reaching their archetypal cores. Such a transformation can occur only when we have gone beyond the personal dimension to the universal. This process is sustained by guidance from the objective psyche through dreams and fantasies. The archetypal core can best be described in terms of its dynamic and formal aspects. The dynamic aspect refers to energy, to expression per se —actions, reactions, patterns of emotion and behavior—which are brought into play through the forms of the personal shell of the complex. The formal aspect involves percepts—representational experiences—usually in the shape of dream or fantasy images, but sometimes in the form of auditory experiences and occasionally of experiences of one of the other senses. All of these manifestations can be seen to correspond to mythological motifs. Thus the nuclear core of a complex characteristically presents itself in the form of mythological representations and images, such as the horned power and the renewing pool of water referred to in the preceding chapters. We call these images mythological because we are familiar with them through their appearance in myths, stories, fairy tales and traditional religious forms of all ages, locales and epochs, and we refer to these recurring motifs as mythologems. They occur in the dreams and fantasies of contemporary men, and do so under three types of circumstances: (1) Mythologems appear in the analytic situation when complexes have been understood and dealt with but when a step beyond the understanding of their personal genesis is required...
eBook - ePubEncounters With Archetypes
Integrated ELA Lessons for Gifted and Advanced Learners in Grades 4-5
- Tamra Stambaugh, Emily Mofield, Eric Fecht, Kim Knauss(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Lesson 7 Novel Study: Encounters With Archetypes DOI: 10.4324/9781003234890-10 Key Question How do encounters with literature and Archetypes allow for reflection and change? Objectives Content: To analyze and interpret fiction, nonfiction, and art, students will be able to: ■ compare and contrast how literary, visual, informational, and/or primary source texts reveal patterns and themes; ■ analyze characters' conflicts, motives, values, thoughts, and actions; ■ compare and contrast the use of specific techniques various authors use to approach and develop similar ideas; ■ identify and analyze archetypal patterns in stories, speeches, and real-world contexts and discuss how they are shaped by the author or real-world individuals or events; and ■ analyze how multiple literary elements interact over the course of the text to develop the theme. Process: To develop interpretation, analysis, and communication skills in the language arts, students will be able to: ■ justify inferences with evidence from the text; ■ elaborate in discussion or in writing on how authors use language and literary elements to create meaning; ■ apply evidence to support explanations and opinions relative to a question, text, or issue; and ■ respond to an analysis of literature, nonaction, media, or art by developing arguments and elaborating on explanations through writing a variety of texts (e.g., essays, paragraphs), including relevant and sufficient evidence to support...
