Archetypal Criticism

  

        Archetypal criticism

The word 'archetype' originated from two Greek words 'arche' which means primitive/original and 'typos' which means a model/form. Archetypes are the recurrent narrative designs, patterns of action, character types, themes and images which are identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths, dreams and even social rituals. Archetype is a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors. It is a recurring symbol or motif throughout literature that represents universal patterns of human nature. It is the original model on which all other things of the same kind are based. For example the common character of a hero is an archetype in that all heroes in Literature share some key traits. In that sense we can say that King Arthur is an archetypal hero.

The definition of archetype refers to it as the first form for whatever else comes after it. Archetypes are abstract in that the first model is not a specific person or thing but instead a concept made concrete by specific and recurring examples and patterns in Literature. Archetypes stem from cultural and psychological myths that are universal or nearly so.

For example the plot of a character going on a quest is found in oral storytelling traditions and works of literature from around the world and from all time periods. Thus the quest plot is an archetype. Another example of archetype is the star crossed (ill fated) lovers. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a perfect example of this archetype.

Archetypal criticism was very much influenced by social anthropology, mythology and psychoanalysis. We can say that archetypal criticism emerges from the myth criticism of Maud Baudkin. Another major influence behind archetypal criticism was the work of the Canadian critic Northrope Frye's Archetypal Patterns in Poetry. James G Frazer's The Golden Bough was another work that influenced archetypal criticism. In this work Frazer analyses the relationship between primitive Greek religion and Christianity. According to him birth- rebirth motif is omnipresent in most cultural mythologies. He points out that myths are the manifestations of natural vegetation cycle that is death as final harvest and rebirth as spring. Crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, the Sacrifice of the hero and his final victory all have these primitive origins as it too results from this natural cycle of death and re-creation.

Contributions of Carl G. Jung

In order to explain archetype Carl Jung proposed the idea of Collective Unconscious. It is a part of our unconscious mind which is derived from ancestral memory and experience and is common to all humankind, as distinct from the individual's unconscious. This part of our unconscious mind was populated by instincts and archetypes. It is a number of thoughts, feelings, instincts and memories that reside in the unconscious of all people. Jung noted that archetypes are universal in nature because these are primordial images emerging at the infancy of human civilization and then shared by subsequent generations. 

Northrope Frye's contributions to archetypal criticism

             It was Frye's Anatomy of Criticism (1957) that theorized the archetypes in pure literary terms, ignoring anthropology and the unconscious. Frye develops the function and effect of archetypes.

            Using the seasons as an archetypal pattern, Frye identifies each season with a literary genre: comedy with spring, romance with summer, tragedy with autumn, and satire with winter. To him, the first two are part of the comedic and the last two of the tragic. Comedy is aligned with spring because the genre of comedy is characterized by the birth of the hero, revival and resurrection. Spring also symbolizes the defeat of winter and darkness. 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. 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. Satire is metonomized 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.

The context of a genre determines how a symbol or image is to be interpreted, Frye outlines five different spheres in his schema: human, animal, vegetation, mineral, and water. 

The comedic human world is representative of wish-fulfillment and is community-centred. In contrast, the tragic human world is one of isolation, tyranny, and the fallen hero. Animals in the comedic genres are docile and pastoral (e.g. sheep), while animals are predatory and wild in the tragic (e.g. wolves). For the realm of vegetation, the comedic is, again, pastoral but also represented by gardens, parks, roses and lotuses. As for tragic, vegetation is of a wild forest, or a barren landscape. Cities, temple, or precious stones represent the comedic mineral realm. The tragic mineral realm is noted for being a desert, ruins, or "of sinister geometrical images". Lastly, the water realm is represented by rivers in the comedic. With the tragic, the seas, and especially floods, signify the water sphere.