Sierra Cappel, Lunia Oriol, and Kae Moulton

MYTHOLOGICAL CRITICISM

• A mythological critic uses hopes, fears, and expectations set by certain cultures to uncover universal ideas or

themes in certain literature.• Carl Jung, a psychologist in the 1930’s, to explain that we

all share a general subconscious and archetypes are universal

• Sir James Frazer studied myth from different cultures and found that stories differ from detail to detail but in

substance are the same.• Northrop Frye founded the principal that all literature

share a similar pattern.• It has strong connections with social anthropology and

psychoanalysis

KEY INFORMATION

Fears

Religion (Water, Rising on the third day, the devil, lambs)

Myth (The Odyssey, Gods, Herculean Quest)

Explanation

Human flaws

Colors

KEY WORDS

• Humans respond instinctively to archetypal

elements because we, according to psychologist Carl Jung, are born with a “collective unconscious”, a

level below the subconscious where the brain collects and

stores archetypes.

• The large variety of archetypes all relate to

human flaws and experiences

• Ignores historical, philosophical, and

aesthetic parts of a work• Reduces the work to basic plot and character

types

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

THE PROS AND CONS

http://www.grossmont.edu/karl.sherlock/English160/Resources/GlossaryDramaLitTerms.htm#MythologicalCriticism

http://www.intech.mnsu.edu/bunkers/archetypal_theory.htm

http://www.lebanon.k12.mo.us/lhs/faculty/croden/archetypes%20and%20archetypal%20criticism.html

http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/archetypal.crit.html

 

http://prezi.com/upx9b5f-y-y5/archetypal-criticism/

CITATIONS