| Basic Concept: Archetypal Theory
Archetypal Theory proposes that human experience reflects, in part, universal patterns common to all cultures and civilizations and that we project these patterns of experience in universal sets of images and symbols. Plato's notion of "Ideal Forms" suggest the concept of archetypes. To stereotype men and women or the old and young by common attributes is, in part, an attempt to define archetypal or universal characteristics. . Because imaginative literature characterizes human experience as much as it reflects, works of fiction, drama, poetry often exhibit such patterns. . Online Connections See "Gender Stereotypes and Sexual Archetypes" as an engaging introduction to archetypal patterns. Other brief introductions can be found in "Ancient Archetypes and Modern Manifestations," "Archetypes in World Literature," "Jung: On the Archetypes," "Carl G. Jung: Description of the Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious." . Our Course Connections The study of archetypal elements in American literature is an engaging study. Although he lacked the familiar twentieth-century jargon to reference them, Washington Irving's folk heroes of the Yankee and Frontiersman in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" are pitted against each other in their amorous conflict over the attention of one of the quintessential female archetypes in the characterization of the coquette, Katrina Van Tassel. Young Goodman Brown of the same story by Nathaniel Hawthorne can be compared with the "Hero of Initiation." Herman Melville's Billy Budd suggests the "scapegoat hero" role.  |