Assignment 3.4: Symbolism
4. Archetypes
Archetypes
Carl Jung first applied the term archetype to literature. He recognized that there were universal patterns in all stories and mythologies regardless of culture or historical period and hypothesized that part of the human mind contained a collective unconscious shared by all members of the human species, a sort of universal, primal memory. Recognizing archetypal patterns in literature brings patterns we all unconsciously respond to in similar ways to a conscious level. Source
Examples of archetypes include symbols (fire, light, circles), characters (the hero or the mother figure), settings (the garden, the island), and situations (the journey, a battle between good/evil), but there are many more.
