PROPONENTS OF THE ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM

The man proponent of the archetypal theory in the 20th century was Carl Gustav Jung and the
Canadian critic and scholar Northrop Frye utilized the archetypal theory in criticism.
o Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)
- A Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who
founded analytical psychology—in some
aspects a response to Sigmund Freud’s
psychoanalysis.
- He proposed and developed the concept of
extraverted and the introverted personality,
archetypes and the collective unconscious.
- According to him, the patterns are embedded
deep in the collective unconscious and involve
racial memories of situations, events,
relationships for time immemorial.
 Collective unconscious- set of primal
memories common to human race, existing
below each person’s conscious mind.
- In his theory, the unconscious mind plays a
profound role, and it has a purpose of assisting individuals in maintaining a balanced
psychological state.
- Jung addresses the relevance of archetypal theory in literature and the arts most
clearly in The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature in 1966 which contains two significant
essays on literature and poetry.
o Northrop Frye (1912-1991)
- A Canadian literary critic, best known as a major
proponent of the archetypal criticism and is
considered as one of the most influential of the 20th
century.
- Anatomy of Criticism (1957)
 Frye’s most important work that introduced
archetypal criticism, identifying and
discussing the basic archetypal patterns as
found in myth, literary genres and the
reader’s imagination.
 The book that sought to provide a structural
framework for the study of literature through
an analysis of its various modes, symbols,
myths, images and genres.
 It has been the most frequently cited book in
the arts and humanities by a writer born in the 20th century.

Reporter: Kiara Nicole Y. Realubit

BSA III-B