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Archetypes

Archetypes. Honors English 10. Why Read W orld L iterature?.

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Archetypes

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  1. Archetypes Honors English 10

  2. Why Read World Literature? “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” –James Baldwin

  3. What Is an Archetype? prototype original pattern model recurrent type Archetype is a Greek word meaning “original pattern, or model.” In literature and art an archetype is a character, event, story or image that recurs in different works, cultures and periods of time. An archetype is always symbolic, but a symbol is NOT always an archetype

  4. Think of stories or image patterns that have been repeated in movies, books, or even commercials…

  5. Common Archetypes

  6. Characters

  7. The Hero The Hero is a protagonist whose life is a series of adventures. Characterized by courage, strength, and honor, the hero will endure hardship, even risk his life for the good of all. sets the standard for leadership in a society often leaves the familiar to enter an unfamiliar and challenging world

  8. The Mentor • The Mentor is an older, wiser teacher to the initiates. • He often serves as a father or mother figure. • He gives the hero gifts (weapons, food, magic, information), serves as a role model or as hero’s conscience.

  9. The Woman Figure • Damsel in Distress- A vulnerable woman who needs to be rescued by the hero. She is often used as a trap to ensnare the unsuspecting hero. • The Temptress or Black Goddess- Characterized by sensuous beauty, this woman is one to whom the protagonist is physically attracted and who ultimately brings about his downfall. May appear as a witch or vampire • Star-Crossed Lovers- Two characters engaged in a love affair fated to end tragically for one or both due to the disapproval of society, friends, family, or some tragic situation. • The Earth mother

  10. More Characters… • The Outcast A character banished from a social group for some real or imagined crime against his fellow man, usually destined to wander from place to place. • The Scapegoat An animal, or more usually a human, whose death in a public ceremony expiates some taint or sin of a community. They are often more powerful in death than in life. • The Faithful Companion • The Christ-like figure (Savior)

  11. More Characters… • The Devil Figure- This character is evil incarnate (embodied). • The Evil Figure with Ultimately Good Heart- A devil figure with the potential to be good. This person is usually saved by the love of the hero. • The Trickster • The Mad Scientist

  12. Themes/ Situations

  13. Change “All stories and poems…[that] use the archetype of change, or metamorphosis . . .show that in the imagination people themselves can ‘become’ something else... In ‘reality’ we are subject to the changes of time, but we can imagine the changes that are not subject to the changes of time” (Jewkes 229).

  14. Loss of Innocence That time when innocence somehow fades away and is replaced by experience or knowledge of the world…it is a story or an event that is a symbol of a universal human experience. When such imaginative stories or events are so common as to be used over and over by many cultures, they are called archetypes” (Jewkes 142). The “fall”

  15. More Archetypal Themes/ Situations… • Death/rebirth • Chaos • Creation • Flood/ punishment • Nature v. mechanical world • good vs. evil • The quest • The initiation • misfit in society • interpretation of dreams • dead returning to life or advising the living

  16. Remember-- An archetype is always symbolic, but a symbol is NOT always an archetype! Symbols

  17. Seasons Spring, the time of planting and growth is related in the imagination to youth, hope, courtship and love, rebirth Summer, a time of ripening, is related to the maturing of relations, to comradeship and community, to fertility and passion, life Fall, the time of harvest, is related to reflection and declining vigor, death/dying Winter, when the earth seems sterile, is related to death and emptiness, without life/death

  18. Water • Water: birth-death-resurrection; source of life; purification and redemption; fertility and growth, beginning and end of all, eternity, baptism, time • Flood- drowning and dissolving death (dangerous energy when it overflows) • Sea/ocean: the mother of all life; spiritual mystery; death and/or rebirth; timelessness and eternity. • Rivers: death and rebirth; the flowing of time into eternity; transitional phases of the life cycle

  19. Sun Sun(fire and sky are closely related)- creative energy; thinking, enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual vision. Rising sun-birth, creation, enlightenment. Setting sun-death.

  20. Colors Red: blood, sacrifice, passion, disorder, violence, love, hell, danger Green: growth, hope, fertility Blue: highly positive; secure; tranquil; spiritual purity, reflection [contemporary-truth, fidelity] Black: darkness, mystery, the unknown, death, wisdom, evil, mourning, lack of consciousness White: light, purity, innocence, timelessness, truth, transformation (whitening ashes); [negative: death, terror, supernatural] Yellow: enlightenment, wisdom, intuition [contemporary-cowardice]

  21. Numbers 3- light, spiritual awareness, unity (the Holy Trinity); male principle 4- associated with the circle, life cycle, four seasons; female principle, earth, nature, elements 7- the most potent of all symbolic numbers signifying the union of three and four, the completion of a cycle, perfect order, perfect number; religious symbol

  22. More Symbolic Archetypes… Garden: paradise (Eden), innocence, unspoiled beauty, fertility Tree: denotes life of the cosmos; growth; proliferation; symbol of immortality; phallic symbol Desert: spiritual emptiness; death; hopelessness Serpent(snake, worm): symbol of energy and pure force; evil, corruption, sensuality, destructionand wisdom Light vs. Darkness Water vs. Desert Innate wisdom vs. Educated stupidity

  23. Why Study Archetypes? • Studying archetypes: • allows us to better understand allusions in artistic as well as popular culture. • provides us with another way to critique literary works and contemporary culture. • According to Joseph Campbell, a scholar of comparative mythology, the following functions exist: • to explain how the world and human life came into being and evolved. • to construct our social identity and to govern our behavior. • to construct our personal identity.

  24. How to Use Archetypal Criticism • Look for patterns, images, motifs that are common to literature • Research common archetypes in literature • While reading- • keep notes of images, patterns, motifs • draw conclusions about the representation of archetypes in the work

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