Download Archetypes

Archetypes
in
Literature and Film
Denise Hunter
EDSC 304
What is an “archetype”?
Psychologist Carl Jung called
these elements a kind of
“collective unconscious” of the
human race
Repeated patterns that recur in the literature
of every age
“The primordial image, or archetype, is a
figure…that constantly recurs in the course
of history and appears wherever creative
fantasy is freely expressed…In each of
these images there is a little piece of
human psychology and human fate, a
remnant of the joys and sorrows that have
been repeated countless times in our
ancestral history…” – Carl Jung
The child
The hero
The devil
The mentor
The trickster
The Archetypes
The great mother
The wise old man
Classic literature is filled with
archetypes…
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Gilgamesh
Beowulf
Homer’s The Iliad
Homer’s The Odyssey
Sir Thomas Malory’s Le
Morte d’Arthur
Why is understanding archetypes
important to understanding literature?
• They provide the deepest
structure of human motivation
and meaning
• Becoming aware of archetypes
can help us understand
characters on a deeper level
– Motivations, dreams
– predictions are possible
• Understand the journey of the
characters
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare
Where else can we find specific examples of
archetypes throughout the history of literature?
Where can we find archetypes in our
modern world?
How can the
complexity of
human nature
be understood by
examining
archetypes?
Activity: What is your archetype?
Archetype Assessment
Based on the theories Carl S. Pearson published in The Hero
Within.