by Modina Sai Varshini 2 years ago
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romance associated with a high point in the summer
comedy associated with spring
bitter irony and satire associated with bleak winter
tragedy associated with the fall
Believed that the coordinating principle was its base in primitive story formulas
Felt that criticism’s job was to awaken students to the mythologies behind their literature and thus their societies
Archetypal criticism allows you to look beyond the setting of the story and helps you identify it's orignality and the myths associated with it
Fry believed that we can often identify archetypal geographies, character types, story aspects, and themes that give literature its structural unity.
Declared that literature is a kind of displaced mythology, and all contemporary literary works root back to the same patterns found in old myths, legends, and folktales
Believed that human beings are connected to each other and their ancestors through a shared set of experiences.
A "memory" from our distant ancestors, a type of psychic inheritance from common to the entire human race embedded even into our unconsciousness
The Unconscious: the part of the mind that contains memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware
Psychic archetypes are recurring patterns of images, symbols, themes, and stories that help us make sense of our lives
"We spin the same stories our primitive ancestors shared over the tribal fire, only with changed settings and costumes."
Influenced critics to seek out mythical elements in popular literature works
He collected data about different cultures and races through other missionaries
Myth and rituals that were part of some primitive cultures
"In other words, studying the mythic roots of literature can be helpful in the endless human quest to find out who we are.Thus, archetypes, according to their fans, not only take us back to the beginning of humankind’s oldest rituals and beliefs, thus connecting us to others, but also take us deeper into an understanding of our own individual psyches." (Gillespie 5)
"Watching mythic or literary heroes struggle, fail, learn, persevere, and experience all possible forms of joy and sorrow is a rehearsal for all that life may bring to us." (Gillespie 4-5)
"... which scholars such as Joseph Campbell believe is foundational information for any educated person, and gets us thinking about all the essential experiences and wishes we share with other people in other times and places." (Gillespie 4)
Ice - Death, ignorance
Fire - Knowledge, rebirth
The Island - Symbolizes isolation
The Garden - Symbolizes love and fertility
Nature vs. Mechanistic World
Battle of Good and Evil
The Star-Crossed Lovers - The lovers who usually meet tragedy
The Devil Figure - Tempts the hero
“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, Whose misadventured piteous overthrows, Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.” (Shakespeare 7)
In the example above, although it is observable that the sun rises everyday, the main concept to grasp is that it expresses our unconscious sense of the eternal story.
"The conviction of archetypal literary critics is that there is a realm of human experience expressed in many myths and fantasy stories that goes deeper than any rational or intellectual thinking." (Gillespie 1)
