Archetypal Criticism (1940's-50)

 

Archetypal Criticism (1940's-50)

(useful for JL/DL/NET/SET/Other exams)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction

Ø The term “archetype” can be traced to Plato, gained popularity in  Psychology of the Unconscious(1916) of Carl Gustav Jung (Swiss Psychologist)

Ø Archetypal literary criticism was given impetus by Maud Bodkin’s Archetypal Patterns in Poetry (1934) and flourished especially during the 1940s and 1950s. (first work on archetypal criticism)

Ø It is a type of analytical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes in the narrative, symbols, images, and character types in literary works.

Ø They believe Archetypes determine the form and function of work

Ø Every work can be categorised & fitted in a frame work.

Ø Archetypes are recurring motifs, ideas, designs mages and patterns

Ex: Sun, moon, old wise men

Key Terms

Archetypes

Ø Note:

Ø Fyre sees it as recurring patterns in Literature

Ø Jung views it as primal images (ancient) that we have inherited

Ø Archetypes is a Greek word (“Original pattern”)

Ø Archē =Beginning - root and origin;

Ø Typos =imprint - pattern or model

Ø =Origins are rooted in two other academic disciplines- social anthropology & Psychoanalysis

Ø Jungian critics-focus on Genesis Origin of myths

Ø Myth Critics -focus on analysis of them

Anima-

Ø Inner feminine- part of male sexuality (Anima-Vagina - Female)

Animus –

Ø Inner masculine –part of female sexuality (Animus-Phallus-Male)

Collective unconscious-

Ø Carl Jung says it is set of primary innate thoughts, feelings instincts dreams, memories common to all humans.

Ø The term "collective unconscious" first appeared in Jung's 1916 essay, "The Structure of the Unconscious".

Ø The Contents of the collective unconsciousness are called archetypes

Ø “Primordial images” is the term for “archetypes” which Jung used in his early works.

Ø Jung defines, “primordial images as the “psychic residue” of the repeated patterns of experience in the lives of our ancestors survives in the “Collective Unconscious” of the human race.

Ø  Northrop Fyre (Jungian Critic) rejected this as "unnecessary hypothesis"

Persona-

Ø The image we present to the world;

Shadow-

Ø darker, hidden elements of a person's psyche

 

Examples of Archetypes:

Archetypes of character

Archetypes of Symbol

-Hero -Outcast -Scapegoat (Blamed for everything) -Star crossed lovers (Joined by love& parted by fate) -Mother Archetype- Common to all species -Old wise man-wisdom -Velick hero's progress

-The Task= Situation -The quest= wanting to The loss of innocence – -Water=Symbol of life, rebirth´ -The Shrew= Nagging Abusing wife -Sea/ocean=Mother of all life -Femme Fatale= Female Disastrous character – -The Journey -Sea/ocean=Mother -River= death/ rebirth -Sun= Creative energy, thinking, wisdom, spiritual vision -Rising Sun =birth, Creation -Red= Blood sacrifice -Black=darkness, death -White = purity -Tree-growth

 

Critics & Books

Carl Jung:

Ø Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, rejected the tabula rasa theory of human psychological development, which suggests that people are born as a "blank slate"

Northrop Fyre (Canadian)

Ø Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947)- This book draws readers into the imaginative world of William Blake. Fearful Symmetry is a phrase from Blake's poem "The Tyger"

Ø Archetypes of Literature (1951)-essay.

It is the major work of Frye’s to deal with archetypes but this essay remains largely unchanged in his book “Anatomy of Criticism”.

Ø Anatomy of criticism: Four essays (1957): Intergraded Archetypal Approach, Collection of 4 Essays:

1.Historical criticism: A theory of modes

2.Ethical Criticism: A theory of Symbols

3.Archetypal Criticism: A theory of Myths

4.Rhetorical Criticism: A theory of Genres

Code:

HEAR-MSMG

Ø Fyre's discovery of the "Prosperpina Myth (Roman myth about the goddess of the underworld)- in Anatomy of Criticism- Shakespeare’s The Winter tale and Pope's  Rape of the Lock

Ø The Great Code: The Bible amid Literature (1982) considered by many to be Northrop Frye's magnum opus, it reflects a lifetime of thinking about the patterns and meanings of the Bible.

Frazer (Sir James George)-

Ø Scottish anthropologist at Cambridge

Ø He researched on Myth for 50 years worked on this master piece work for 25 years

Ø His masterpiece is “The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion(1911-15)" -12 volumes

Ø He identified myths/rituals common to all cultures

Ø Frazer cites the Greek myth of Persephone, who was taken to the Underworld (She is known to Romans as Prosperpina)

Ø Says "Death- Rebirth is manifest in Agriculture & Harvest"

Ø The myth is symbolized by the death (i.e., final harvest) and rebirth (i.e., spring) of the god of vegetation.

Maud Bodkins

Ø Archetypal Pattern in poetry (1934)

Ø first work to apply Jungian theories in Archetypal criticism

Joseph Campbell- American

Ø Hero with a thousand faces (1949)

Ø Pioneered the concept of "mono myth"

Ø universal pattern of heroic tales across the difficulties

Ø He examined 8 steps to hero's journey.

Ø Borrowed the term from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake

Wilson Knight

Ø The wheel of fire- Interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy with three new ways (1949)

Other critics:

Robert Graves-

Francis Ferguson-

Philip Wheel right-

Richard Chase-

Leslie Fielder-American Critic

Ø Interested in mythology

Ø Love and Death in the American Novel (1960)

 

The Cycle of Mythoi (Northrop Fyre)

Ø Mythos is the Greek word (Aristotle’s favoured word) for “story” or “plot.”

Ø There are two basic categories in Frye’s framework, i.e., comedic and tragic. Each category is further subdivided into two categories: comedy and romance for the comedic; tragedy and satire (or ironic) for the tragic.

Ø The two basic genres are dived into 4 types of plots called "Mythoi” and they are associated with 4 “Seasons”

Ø Each season is aligned with a literary genre: comedy with spring, romance with summer, tragedy with autumn, and satire with winter.            

Four types of Mythoi(plots)

1)    Comedy = Spring - because deals with birth of a hero, revival, resurrection:

Comedy is aligned with spring because the genre of comedy is characterized by the birth of the hero, revival and resurrection. Also, spring symbolizes the defeat of winter and darkness.

2)    Romance= Summer- because some sort of triumph, usually a marriage:

Romance and summer are paired together because summer is the culmination of life in the seasonal calendar, and the romance genre culminates with some sort of triumph, usually a marriage.

3)    Tragedy= Autumn/Fall -Deals with fall of protagonist:

Autumn is the dying stage of the seasonal calendar, which parallels the tragedy genre because it is, (above all), known for the “fall” or demise of the protagonist.

4)    Satire = winter - since it is a dark genre, Hero is absent/

Satire is metonymized with winter on the grounds that satire is a “dark” genre. Satire is a disillusioned and mocking form of the three other genres. It is noted for its darkness, dissolution, the return of chaos, and the defeat of the heroic figure.

 

Frye outlines five different spheres in his schema: human, animal, vegetation, mineral, and water.

1.    The comedic human world is representative of wish-fulfillment and being community centered. In contrast, the tragic human world is of isolation, tyranny, and the fallen hero.

2.    Animals in the comedic genres are docile and pastoral (e.g. sheep), while animals are predatory and hunters in the tragic (e.g. wolves).

3.    For the realm of vegetation, the comedic is, again, pastoral but also represented by gardens, parks, roses and lotuses. As for the tragic, vegetation is of a wild forest, or as being barren.

4.    Cities, temples, or precious stones represent the comedic mineral realm. The tragic mineral realm is noted for being a desert, ruins, or “of sinister geometrical images” (Frye 1456).

5.    Lastly, the water realm is represented by rivers in the comedic. With the tragic, the seas, and especially floods, signify the water sphere.

Frye admits that his schema in “The Archetypes of Literature” is simplistic, but makes room for exceptions by noting that there are neutral archetypes. The example he cites are islands such as Circe’s or Prospero’s which cannot be categorized under the tragic or comedic.