1 / 11

Archetypes

Your guide to the patterns in literature. Archetypes. Archetype is a Greek word meaning “original pattern, or model.”

mazzella
Download Presentation

Archetypes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Your guide to the patterns in literature. Archetypes

  2. Archetype is a Greek word meaning “original pattern, or model.” In literature and art an archetype is a character, an event, a story or an image that recurs in different works, in different cultures and in different periods of time. An example of an archetype occurs in the story of “The Flood.” Many different cultures have similar stories about the reasons for and the results of a flood. Can you think of any stories or image patterns that have been repeated in movies, books, or even commercials? Definition of Archetype

  3. This archetype focuses on stories of both loss of innocence as well as the acquisition of knowledge. “What is the meaning of “lost childhood” or “falling down”? In life, it is called “growing up.” That time when innocence somehow fades away and is replaced by experience or knowledge of the world. But in the imagination , it is the opening of a forbidden jar, the eating of a forbidden fruit, the death of a loved one, the destruction of something beautiful…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 End of Childhood

  4. “The fall from innocence is an archetypal event. It signifies the realization that we cannot hide from time. It is the discovery that all the potential for happiness that we feel in childhood is often not realized in adulthood” (Jewkes 142). The word “childhood” in this archetype has two different meanings. What are the different meanings that you can attach to it? End of Childhood cont.

  5. Think of an instance when you had to leave a part of your childhood behind because you acquired knowledge. When did this happen? What was the situation? How did you feel once you had discovered the truth? Did it make you feel more grown up or did you wish that you could still remain “innocent” to the truth? What books or movies have you seen in which a loss of innocence is a theme? End of Childhood Cont.

  6. Read the lyrics: http://www.lyricsdepot.com/joni-mitchell/circle-game.html What do you think the different stages in this boy’s life represent? Which stanza do you think is most telling of the boy’s transition from childhood to adulthood? Quote the stanza. Why do you think this song/poem is entitled “The Circle Game?” What do circles represent? Do you think of life as more circular or linear (linear means that it goes straight from one point to the next.) The End of Childhood:The Circle Game

  7. Go to http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/hebrew_creation.html#7#7and read the summary of Adam and Eve. In your steno pads - • Describe Adam and Eve at the beginning of creation. • Describe the Garden of Eden. • What temptation did they encounter in the Garden of Eden? • How did Adam and Eve change as a result of this encounter? • What does the apple symbolize? • What does the serpent symbolize? Adam and Eve

  8. Water: birth-death-resurrection; creation; purification and redemption; fertility and growth. Sea/ocean: the mother of all life; spiritual mystery; death and/or rebirth; timelessness and eternity. Rivers: death and rebirth (baptism); the flowing of time into eternity; transitional phases of the life cycle. . . . Sun (fire and sky are closely related): creative energy; thinking, enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual vision. Rising sun: birth, creation, enlightenment. Setting sun: death. Archetypal Symbols

  9. Colors: Red: blood, sacrifice, passion; disorder. Green: growth, hope, fertility. Blue: highly positive; secure; tranquil; spiritual purity. Black: darkness, chaos, mystery, the unknown, death, wisdom, evil, melancholy. White: light, purity, innocence, timelessness; [negative: death, terror, supernatural] Yellow: enlightenment, wisdom. Archetypal Colors

  10. Serpent (snake, worm): symbol of energy and pure force (libido); evil, corruption, sensuality, destruction. 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. Important symbols and numbers

  11. Wise old Man: savior, redeemer, guru, representing knowledge, reflection, insight, wisdom, intuition, and morality. Garden: paradise, innocence, unspoiled beauty. Tree: denotes life of the cosmos; growth; proliferation; symbol of immortality; phallic symbol. Desert: spiritual aridity; death; hopelessness. Creation: All cultures believe the Cosmos was brought into existence by some Supernatural Being (or Beings). Seasons: Spring - rebirth; genre/comedy. Summer - life; genre/romance. Fall - death/dying; genre/tragedy. Winter - without life/death; genre/irony. The great fish: divine creation/life. Archetypal Symbols

More Related