Archetypes

1. Archetypes

2. Definition of Archetype AGreek word meaning “original pattern, or model” • Researchers have been able to collect and compare myths, legends, and religions of cultures from all around the world. • They discovered that for centuries, people who had NO contact with each other had passed down stories through generations that were similar to the stories of other cultures. • The basic elements of these stories are called ARCHETYPES. • Many literary critics are of the opinion that archetypes, which have a common and recurring representation in a particular human culture or entire human race, shape the structure and function of a literary work. • In literature, an archetype is a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent universal patterns of human nature. • What types of character, situation or image patterns have you seen repeated in the movies you examined?

3. The Roots of Archetypal Theory • This literary theory/criticism has its roots in social anthropology as well as psychoanalysis and was most popular during the 1940s and 1950s. • Anthropologist Sir James George Frazer examined cultural mythologies, including the study of the shared practices of primitive and modern religions.

4. The Roots of Archetypal Theory • Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist, argued that the root of an archetype is in the “collective unconscious” of mankind. • “collective unconscious” refers to experiences shared by a race or culture • including love, religion, death, birth, life, struggle, survival etc. • These experiences exist in the subconscious of every individual and are recreated in literary works or in other forms of art. • Archetypes are represented through primordial images that have been part of human’s collective unconscious since the first stages of time.

5. The Roots of Archetypal Theory • Well-known Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye (1912-1991) dealt with archetypes from a purely literary view. • Believed human beings projected their narrative imaginations in to two fundamental ways: • representations of an ideal world • representations of the real world

6. The Roots of Archetypal Theory Frye divided his theory into four narrative patterns, like the seasons. • Summer = romance (ideal world) • Winter = irony/satire (real world, tragic/comic) • Autumn = Tragedy • movement from summer/ideal/innocence to winter/real/experience • Spring = Comedy • movement from winter/real/experience to summer/ideal/innocence

7. The Roots of Archetypal Theory These form a kind of master plot that is the structure of a quest. • Conflict = basis of romance • Catastrophe = basis of tragedy • Disorder & confusion = basis of irony & satire • Triumph = basis of comedy • He called this theory archetypal criticism because it deals with the recurrence of certain narrative patterns in Western Literature.

8. We are going to divide our examination of archetypes into four areas: • Situations (plot formulas, patterns of action) • Character Types • Setting (time & place) • Symbols – images & color You’ll often find several of these archetypes within one

9. Archetypal Situational (Plot) The movie opens…. the young, beautiful actress is on a tirade about how much she hates, and she means hates, detests, loathes and every other adjective in between, the new guy she works with (who happens to be drop dead good looking and single). He pokes fun at her and frequently stops by her desk. She fumes silently. She yells at him about how she can’t stand the sight of him. He laughs and says he can’t stand her either. What’s going to happen? How do you know this?

10. THE QUEST—search for someone or some object, which when it is found and brought back will restore life to a wasted land, the desolation of which is shown by a leader’s illness and disability

11. Archetypal Situational (Plot) THE INITIATION—this usually takes the form of an initiation into adult life. The adolescent comes into his/her maturity with new awareness and problems along with a new hope for the community. This awakening is often the climax of the story. DEATH AND REBIRTH—grows out of a parallel between the cycle of nature and the cycle of life. Thus, morning and springtime represent birth, youth, or rebirth; evening and winter suggest old age or death.

12. Archetypal Situational (Plot) THE FALL—describes a descent from a higher to a lower state of being. The experience involves a defilement and/or a loss of innocence and bliss. The fall is often accompanied by expulsion from a kind of paradise as a penalty for disobedience and moral transgression. BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL—Obviously the battle between two primal forces. Mankind shows eternal optimism in the continual portrayal of good triumphing over evil despite great odds. These manifest themselves in the classic conflicts of menacing enemies, natural dangers, moral dilemmas, problems with society, and difficulty with fate or decisions

13. Archetypal Situational (Plot) What movies do you know that follow one of these narrative patterns?

14. The movie starts. A dark character is seen carrying a limp figure in a pink gown. Suddenly, another figure, accompanied by a falcon appears… Who are these people?

15. Archetypal Character These are the “stereotype” characters that you see over and over again. You’ve seen these characters throughout different cultures and over different eras in history. Here are just a few…

16. Archetypal Character

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18. Archetypal Characters

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21. Archetypal Characters

22. Archetypal Characters

23. What movies do you know that have these types of characters?

24. The movie opens on a dark, stormy night. There is no power in the house where the couple lives. What does this suggest? Why?

25. Archetypal Setting • These are settings that are seen over and over throughout literature. Although the settings may vary a little over time or as cultures change, the basic premise of the setting is the same. • Such as…

26. Archetypal Settings

27. Archetypal Settings

29. Archetypal Settings universe of opposites –this can be anything from light and dark or day and night to good and evil or man verse beast landscape that emerges from chaos - begins with some kind of void or confusion and something whole is brought forth such as the light and the darkness emerging from the watery chaos

30. What movies do you know that have these types of settings?

31. Symbolic Archetypes: These are symbols (something which represents something else) that have occurred over and over again throughout time and in various different cultures. These symbols have always represented the same things; that is what makes them an archetype and what makes us recognize them as symbols when we see them.

32. Symbols • LIGHT VS. DARKNESS—light suggests hope, renewal, or intellectual illumination; darkness suggests the unknown, ignorance, or despair. • WATER VS. DESERT—water is necessary to life and growth and so it appears as a birth or rebirth symbol; the appearance of rain in a work can suggest spiritual birth or rebirth; characters who live in the desert are often “dead” to morals or the “good side” • Water = purity, cleansing, baptism • Fire = purging, tribulation • HEAVEN VS. HELL—gods live in the skies or mountaintops; evil forces live in the bowels of the earth

33. Archetypal Images/Symbols • Seasons = spring is birth, winter is death • Heavenly bodies = moon is change, cycles; sun is power, inspiration, goodness • Circles = completeness, wholeness, unity • Plants = Oak is strength, rose is beauty • Animals = serpent is evil; lamb is innocent, lion is strong • snakes or cows hold special value in the culture or religion • the snake in the Garden or Eden = temptation; but a snake can also symbolize rebirth (shedding skin) • Numbers = a particular number holds a sacred value for the culture (such as 3 for the Christian faith, the divine trinity, 7 is perfect or luck)

34. Archetypal Colors • Color = positive (negative) • Black = power (death, mourning) • Blue = nobility, tranquility (depression) • Brown = Earth, nature (confusion) • Gray = neutral (passionless) • Green = fertility, renewal, wealth (greed, envy) • Orange = adventure, change (forced change, disruptiveness) • Purple = royalty, positive personal growth (injury) • Red = sex, love (sacrifice, taboo, humiliation, danger) • White= purity, wholesomeness, rebirth (emptiness) • Yellow = enlightenment (cowardice, illness)

35. Symbolic Archetypes: What movies do you know that contain any of these symbols or colors or images?

36. Now, take what you know about archetypes and apply them to everyone’s favorite Ogre….

37. SHREK Archetypes

39. Activity: Develop & Apply You Do Review your notes on archetypes. Use your movie lists and identify one archetype from each category (situational, symbolic, setting and character). For each archetype (4), write two sentences explaining why your choice demonstrates an example of each of these archetypes by using your definitions from your notes.

40. Thanks to my sources… • “Archetypal Literary Criticism,” Wikipedia. Web. 12 November 2014. • Don L. F. Nilsen and. Alleen Pace Nilsen at Arizona Sate University • Louisa Graner at Woodstock High School, Georgia • Monique Fisher, White Station High School • Kipp, r. http://central.wmrhsd.org/ • [Reference: William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature 8 ed. (1999).]—adapted from Dave Crew’s handout on Archetypal Criticism. • Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide. Garland Publishing, 1999. p. 210-212.