This document discusses mythological and archetypal approaches to literature as outlined by various critics and theorists such as Joseph Campbell, William Blake, Alan W. Watts, and Philip Wheelwright. It explores common archetypes, images, motifs, and characters that appear across myths and stories from different cultures and elicit universal human reactions. These include elements like water, the sun, colors, circles, snakes, numbers, and archetypal figures like the wise old man, trickster, and mother figures. It also examines common archetypal themes and situations like creation, immortality, and the hero's quest. Northrop Frye and Carl Jung contributed to understanding how archetypes reveal themselves through dreams and in different genres of literature.

1. Prepared by: Erika Panganiban
Mythological
and
Archetypal
Approaches

2. Joseph Campbell
Myth critic is concerned:
to seek out those mysterious elements that inform
certain literary works and that elicit, with almost
uncanny force, dramatic and universal human reactions
to discover how certain works of literature give
readers a perennial response

3. Joseph Campbell
Mythology tends to be speculative and
philosophical.
Its affinities are with religion, anthropology, and
cultural history.
Myths are merely primitive fictions, illusions, or
opinions based upon false reasoning.

4. William Blake
Myth is fundamental.
It is the dramatic representation of our deepest
instinctual life, of a primary awareness of man in
the universe, capable of many configurations,
upon which all particular opinions and attitudes
depend.

5. Alan W. Watts
Myth is to be defined as a complex of stories.
Human beings regard as demonstrations of the inner
meaning of the universe and of human life.

6. Philip Wheelwright
Myths are by nature collective and communal.
They bind a tribe or a nation together in common
psychological and spiritual activities.
It is the expression of a profound sense of togetherness
of feeling and of action and of wholeness of living.
Myth transcends time, uniting the past with the present
and reaching toward the future.

7. Archetypes
Motifs
Images

8. A. Water – mystery of creation; fertility and growth;
purification and redemption; birth-death-
resurrection
Sea – mother of all life
Rivers – death and rebirth, phases of life cycle
B. Sun – creative energy, father principle
Rising sun – birth, creation, enlightenment
Setting sun – death

9. C. Colors
Red – blood, sacrifice
Green – growth, fertility, death, decay
Blue – religious feeling, highly positive
Black – darkness, chaos, mystery
White – purity, innocence light

10. D. Circle – wholeness, unity
Mandala – desire for spiritual unity and psychic
integration
Egg – mystery of life
Yin-Yang – opposite forces
Ouroboros – eternal cycle of life
E. Serpent – energy and pure force, destruction

11. F. Numbers
Three – male principle
Four – nature
Five – integration
Seven – union of three and four, perfect cycle
G. Archetypal Woman
Good mother – nourishment, protection
Terrible mother – witch, sorceress
Soul mate – princess or beautiful lady, inspiration

12. H. Demon lover – Satan, Dracula
I. Wise old man – wisdom, cleverness
J. Trickster – joker, clown, fool
K. Garden – paradise, unspoiled beauty
L. Tree – growth, inexhaustible life
M. Desert – hopelessness, death
N. Mountain – aspiration and inspiration

13. 1. Creation
– most fundamental; humankind were brought
into existence by some supernatural being
2. Immortality
Escape from time – return to paradise; the
state of perfect, timeless bliss enjoyed by man
and woman
Mystical submersion into cyclical time
– endless death and regeneration
(e.g To His Coy Mistress)

14. 3. Hero Archetypes
The quest – the hero undertakes some long
journey during which he must perform
impossible tasks
Initiation – the hero undergoes a series of
excruciating ordeals in passing from
ignorance and immaturity to social and
spiritual adulthood
(three phases: separation, transformation,
return)
The sacrificial scapegoat – the hero, with whom
the welfare of tribe is identified
(e.g Hamlet, Oedipus)

15. Northrop Frye
the mythos of spring: comedy
the mythos of summer: romance
the mythos of fall: tragedy
the mythos of winter: irony

16. Carl Jung
Archetypes reveal themselves in the dreams of
individuals.
Dreams are personalized myths and myths are
depersonalized dreams.

17. Carl Jung
Individuation – a psychological growing up
- the process of recognition
(e.g Frankenstein, Young Good Man Brown)
Archetypes:
1. Shadow – darker side of our unconscious self
2. Anima – “soul-image”
3. Persona – actor’s mask that we show to the world

18. Archetypal Characters
(e.g the scapegoat)
Archetypal Situations
(e.g colors)
Archetypal Images
(e.g the quest)