1. Archetypes in Literature and Film
Denise Hunter
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2. What is an “archetype”?
Psychologist Carl Jung called these elements a kind of “collective unconscious” of the human race
Repeated patterns that recur in the literature of every age

3. “The primordial image, or archetype, is a figure…that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed…In each of these images there is a little piece of human psychology and human fate, a remnant of the joys and sorrows that have been repeated countless times in our ancestral history…” – Carl Jung

4. The Archetypes The child The hero The devil The mentor The trickster
The great mother
The wise old man

5. Classic literature is filled with archetypes…
Gilgamesh
Beowulf
Homer’s The Iliad
Homer’s The Odyssey
Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur
-Discuss background of the epics/novels.
- Discuss the hero archetype

6. Why is understanding archetypes important to understanding literature?
They provide the deepest structure of human motivation and meaning
Becoming aware of archetypes can help us understand characters on a deeper level
Motivations, dreams
predictions are possible
Understand the journey of the characters

7. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Ask students to brainstorm and come up with their own examples
Puck, Robin Goodfellow = The trickster
Jim = The mentor
Phoebe Caulfield = the child
William Shakespeare
Where else can we find specific examples of archetypes throughout the history of literature?

8. Where can we find archetypes in our modern world?
- Discuss how archetypes are still inherent in today’s literature and pop culture

9. How can the complexity of human nature be understood by examining archetypes?

10. Activity: What is your archetype?
Archetype Assessment
Based on the theories Carl S. Pearson published in The Hero Within.