This document discusses archetypal criticism as a type of literary theory. Archetypal criticism examines recurring myths, symbols, and character types in narratives by focusing on patterns embedded in the collective unconscious. It assumes there are universal archetypes that elicit similar responses in all people. Proponents of archetypal criticism like Carl Jung and Northrop Frye believe it can help readers connect with basic human anxieties and desires represented in literature. Archetypal criticism provides a universalistic approach to analyzing works that are highly symbolic.

1. Literary Theory

2. Three Perspectives
THE AUTHOR

3. Three Perspectives
THE AUTHOR THE TEXT

4. Three Perspectives
THE AUTHOR THE TEXT THE READER

5. What is Literary Criticism?
---- Literary criticism is the evaluation,
analysis, description, or interpretation of
literary works.
---- It is usually in the form of a critical
essay, but in-depth book reviews can
sometimes be considered literary criticism.
---- Criticism may examine a particular
literary work, or may look at an author's
writings as a whole.
---- Finding literary criticism can be
challenging.

7. Archetypal Criticism
It is a type of critical
theory that interprets a text by
focusing on recurring myths and
archetypes in the narrative,
symbols, images, and character
types in a literary work.

8. According to Carl Jung, these
patterns are embedded deep in the
"collective unconscious" and involve
"racial memories" of situations,
events, relationships from time
immemorial,

9. The “collective unconscious” is a set
of primal memories common to the human
race, existing below each person's
conscious mind. Archetypal criticism
assumes that there is a collection of
symbols, images, characters, and motifs
that suggest basically the same response
in all people.

10. Archetype
 An archetype is a generic idealized
model of a person, object, or concept
from which similar instances are
derived, copied, patterned, or
emulated.
 In psychology, an archetype is a
model of a person, personality, or
behavior. This article is about
personality archetypes, as described
in literature analysis and the study of

11.  Archetypal criticism is an attempt to
bring psychological analysis and
reflection to bear upon the imaginative
experience communicated by literature,
and to examine those forms or patterns
in which the universal forces of human
nature find objectification.

12. Archetypal images and story patterns
can encourage readers to participate in
basic beliefs, fears, and anxieties of
their age. These archetypes constitute
the clearness of the text but also tap
into a level of desires and anxieties of
people.
Archetypal criticism helps in the
deepening of events into experiences.
It provides a universalistic approach to
literature. It works well with works
that are highly symbolic

13. Proponents
Jung addresses the
relevance of archetypal
Carl Jung
theory in literature and the
arts most clearly in The
Spirit in Man, Art, and
Literature (1966) which
contains two significant
essays on literature and
poetry (first published 1922
and 1930).

14. In Jung’s archetypal theory, the
unconscious mind plays a profound
role, and it has a purpose, which is to
assist individuals in maintaining a
balanced psychological state.

15. Northrop Frye (1912-1991)
Canadian literary critic, best
known as a major proponent of
archetypal criticism.
In this branch of
literary criticism, literature
and other art forms are seen
as manifestations of universal
myths and archetypes. Frye’s
most important work, Anatomy
of Criticism (1957), introduced
archetypal criticism,
identifying and discussing basic
archetypal patterns as found in
myths, literary genres, and the
reader’s imagination.

16. A. Images