Archetypes of lifeFrom Personal Experience to quest literature and Back again
Respond in your notes:
What patterns of life (situations, thoughts, emotions) do all humans experience?
Give specific examples and explain why all people experience them.
How do they fit on here?
How about Here?
What is an archetype?
Archetypos (Gr) = “original pattern”
In literature: A recurring image, character, or pattern of circumstances that is thought to be universal.
(in other words = a universal motif)
“First-Molded” (Greek)
Genesis 2:7: God made Adam out of “dust from the ground.”
Humans = “in God’s image”
Plato = Ideal Forms
ἀρχέτυπος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
Plato’s allegory of the cave
We are prisoners chained in a cave, looking at a wall
Everything we see = just shadow of the true (original) FORM
Archetype = IDEAL FORM
What is Beauty?
Plato: Everything “beautiful” that we see is a SHADOW of the IDEAL FORM of Beauty…
Back to dreams
Jung’s “Collective Unconsciousness” = dream/memory/instinct part of mind that ALL people share
Reflects common ARCHETYPES: universal Images / ideas
Example: Arthur’s Dream
Archetypal characters?
Situational Archetype = quest
Quest = search/pursuit
In Arthurian romance: search/expedition to achieve a goal
Goal has deeper moral significance
Archetypes within the quest archetypeQuest
-Call to Adventure
-Crossing the Threshold (Departure)
- Trails
-Trails by 3 (Bedivere, St. Peter)
-Tempted away from Quest (Circe)
-Death & Rebirth (Crisis)
-Atonement (New Life)
In your notes, write a modern-day scenario for one of these stages
1: Call to Adventure
2: Crossing the Threshold (Departure)
3: Help along the Way
4: Temptation
5: Death & Rebirth (Crisis)
6: Atonement (New Life)
Group Scenarios
- With your group, prepare to act out a scenario (~2 minutes)
- Not everyone needs to talk, but everyone should act out a part
- Connect scenario to Hero’s Journey
- Draw on every day experience (Be creative!)
Roles
MC: Intro/Conclusion
Set Manager: Setting and Staging
Script Writer: Script
Narrator: Premise / Characters
Turn in 4 written parts at end of class
**All Group Members Act**
Reflection
How do archetypes help us better understand our lives?