Name:- Sejal R. Parmar
Sem:- 2
Enrollment no:-
Year:- 2018-2020
Email:- sejalparmar095@gmail.com
Paper:-literary criticism in the age of information: digital
Humanities
Topic:- Northrop Frye's Archetypal Criticism
Archetypal
criticism
-Northrop Frye
*Introduction
Herman
Northrop Frye (1912-1991) is Canadian literary critic, university professor and
editor. A professor of English at Victoria Collage at the University of
Toronto. Frye published his first book, ‘Fearful Symmetry: A study of William
Blake’ in 1947. The book is a highly original study of the poetry of Blake and
it is considered a classic critical work.
Anatomy of Criticism
The Education
Imagination
The Modern Century
The Archetypes of
Literature
In his
‘Archetypes of literature’ Frye outlines a theory of the arts in general and
literature in particular which would be developed more fully in his celebrated
“Anatomy of criticism”. Archetypal literary criticism was 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 literary work.
What is Archetypal?
Archetype was a Greek word meaning “Original pattern, or model.” In
literature, film and art an archetype was a Character, an event, a story or an
image that recurs in different works, in different culture and in different
periods of time.
*Definition of archetypal.
Archetypal means
images and symbols are representing in literature it’s called archetypal.
In literature, an archetype is a typical character, an
action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human
nature.
Archetypal can refer
to a constantly recurring symbol or motif in literature, painting or mythology.
“A kind of literary
anthropology”-by Frye
* In dictionary meaning: A typical idea.
*According to Northrop Frye………
“In literary criticism the term archetype suggests narrative
designs, patterns of action, character types, themes and images whichare known
to a wide verity of works of literature also to myths, dreams and even social
rituals.”
General meaning of Archetypes according to Carl G. Jung of Dept.
psychology in “Collective unconscious” it is Primordial images and Psychic
residue. James G Frazer gave theory of Archetype in “The Golden Bough”
identified elemental patterns of myth and ritual. Creative writers have used
myths in their works and critics analyze text was called archetypal criticism.
Archetype can be:
* Archetypal criticism as “A new poetics”
This, ‘New Poetics’ wasto be found in the principle of the mythological
framework, which has come to be known as “archetypal Criticism”. It is through
the lens of this framework, which is essentially a centrifugal movement of
backing up from the text towards of literary criticism becomes apparent
essentially. According to Frye;
*Is awaken students to Successive levels of awareness Of the
mythology that lies Behind the ideology in which Their society indoctrinates
them”
The study of recurring structure pasterns grants students an
emancipation distance from theirown society, and gives theme vision of a higher
human state the logician sublime.
*Frye use seasons in archetypal criticism
* Spring: Comedy
Comedy emphases on the social group, often
setting up an arbitrary law or humorous society and setting out to reform
it. This change, however, was rarely a
moral judgment of the wicked, but usually a social judgment of the absurd
instead. Comedy was aligned with spring because the genre of comedy is characterized by the birth of
the hero and spring was also symbolizes the defeat of winter and darkness.
*Summer: Romance
Romance related with summer both are pairettogether because
summer was the culmination of life in the seasonal calendar, and romance genre
culminates with some sort of triumph. Romance wasaligned with summer because
summer was the Culmination of life in the seasonal Calendar. In romance the
reader’s values are bound up with hero who unequivocally represents what is
supposed to be right and virtuous. The essential element in the plot of
romance.
* Winter: Irony and Satire
Irony and satire
parody romance by applying romantic mythical forms to a more realistic content,
which fits them in unexpected ways. It
presents an image where reality rather than ideology was dominant. Satire is
militant irony, where moral norms are relatively clear, and standards are
assumed against which the grotesque and absurd are measured.
Now Frye
gives the context of a genre determines how a symbol an image is to be
interpreted. He gives five different views of different fields like human,
animal, vegetation, mineral, and water.
(1) Human:
The comedic human world is
representative of wish –fulfillment. In its contrast, the tragic human world is
of isolation, tyranny, and the fallen hero. Thus, in different world, the roles
of different humans do not change.
(2)
Animals:
The
comedic animal world suggests the docile and pastoral animals whereas in the
tragic animal world they are like hunters, predatory for example wolves,
leopard etc.
(3)
Vegetation:
The comedic realm of vegetation is pastoral as well as gardens, parks
also symbolizes roses and lotuses. And the tragic realm of vegetation is like a
wild forest or sometime a sterile or barren place.
(4)
Mineral:
The
comedic mineral realm represents cities, temples or precious stones. The tragic
mineral realm represents desert, ruined places
(5) Water:
At last,
the comedic realm of water was represented by rivers. And in tragic realm by
seas, especially by floods. Signify the water covers huge part of earth and it
is vital for all known forms of life. For example The Mississippi River in
Huckleberry Finn.
*Inductive & Deductive Methods of Archetypal Criticism
* Inductive Method
Frye contends
that structural criticism will help a reader in understanding a text, and in
this analysis, he proceeds inductively. That is from particular truths. For
example Othello, in the Shakespearean play, inflicts upon himself affliction
and this was the particular truth of the general truth of life that jealousy is
always destructive. This is called the inductive method of analysis under
structural criticism and Frye disuses this in detail in this section of the
essay.
*The Deductive Method
The
Deductive method of analysis proceeds to establish the meaning of work from the
general truth to particular truth. Literature is like music and painting.
Rhythm is an essential characteristic of music and painting, pattern is the
chief virtue. Rhythm in music is temporal and pattern in painting is spatial.
In literature both rhythm and pattern is spatial. In literature both rhythm and
pattern are recurrence of images, forms and word.
Literature can be
interpreted in as many ways as possible. These methods are useful for critics
and it can derive reader in new direction and vision of any literary work. If
we want to interpret in different way through this methods Centre and periphery
can be changed.
*Archetypes in Characters
· The Hero:
The Hero is a
character who predominantly exhibits goodness and struggles against evil in
order to restore harmony and justice to society. The traditional protagonist is
the driver of the story: the one who forces the action. We root for it and hope
for its success. For example Hamlet, Macbeth, Tom Jones, etc.
*The outcast
He or she has
been out casted from society. The outcast figure can oftentimes also be
considered as a Christ figure. For example in Indian myths there are characters
like Pandvas, Ram- Sita- Laxman, Sugreev, Vibhishan etc.
*The outcast
He or she has
been out casted from society. The outcast figure can oftentimes also be
considered as a Christ figure. For example in Indian myths there are characters
like Pandvas, Ram- Sita- Laxman, Sugreev, Vibhishan etc.
*The Scapegoat
A character
that takes the blame of everything bad that happens. No one try to understand
whether he or she is really at fault or nor. For example Tom Jones, Ophelia in
“Hamlet”, etc.
*The Star-Crossed Lovers
This is a
young couple joined by love but unexpectedly parted by fate. For example Romeo
and Juliet from William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Heer and Ranjha,
Heathcliff.
* The Journey
The main
character takes a journey that may be physical or emotional to understand his
or her personality and the nature of the world. For example; Oliver Twist, Tom
Jones, Rama, etc.
*The situation or symbol
*The quest:
The characters
search for something whether consciously or unconsciously. Their action,
thoughts, feelings are centered around the goal of completing this quest. For
example Rama’s search for Sita, Nal-
Damyanti’s search for each other,
Savitri’s search for Satyakam’s life, etc.
*The Task:
This refers to a possibly superhuman feat that must be
accomplished in order to fulfill the ultimate goal. For example, Frodo’s task
to keep the ring safe in J.R.R. Tolkein’s
“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
* Water:
Water is necessary to life and growth; it commonly appears
as a birth or rebirth symbol. It is also strong life force. Symbolizes
creation, purification and redemption also fertility and growth.
*Sun:
It symbolizes creative energy like fire, thinking,
enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual wisdom, piousness, dawn etc. Rising sun
symbolizes birth, creation, enlightenment. While setting sun symbolizes death.
* Colors:
*Black- darkness,
chaos, mystery, the unknown, before existence, death, the unconscious, evil.
* Red- blood,
sacrifice; violent passion, disorder, sunrise, birth, fire, emotion, wounds,
death, sentiment
*Green- hope,
growth, envy, Earth, fertility, sensation, vegetation, water, nature, sympathy.
* White - light,
purity, peace, innocence, goodness, Spirit, morality, creative force, spiritual
thought
* Orange- fire,
pride, ambition, egoism, Venus.
*Yellow-
enlightenment, wisdom.
* Blue – clear
sky, the day, the sea, height, depth, heaven, religious feeling.
*Numbers:
*Three- Spirit,
Birth, Life, Death, light.
*
Four-life cycle, four elements, four seasons.
*Six- devil, evil.
*Seven- relationship
between man and God, seven deadly sins, seven days of week, seven days to
create the world, seven stages of civilization, seven colors of the rainbow,
seven gifts of Holy Spirit.
*Nature:
* Air- activity,
creativity, breathe, light, freedom (liberty), movement
*Rain- life giver
*Clouds - mystery, sacred
*Tree- where we learn, tree of life, tree of knowledge
*Wind- Holy Spirit,
life
*Mountain- height, mass, center of the world, ambition,
goals.
*Heart- love and emotions.
The use of archetypal characters and situations gives a
literary work a universal acceptance, as readers identify the characters and
situations in their social and cultural context.
*Conclusion
To
sun up, Frye points out there are only a few species of myth though there are
an infinite numbers of individual myths. For example, these species or
archetypes of myths include “myths of creation, of fall, of exodus and
migration of the destruction, of the human race in the past or the future, and
of redemption”.
No comments:
Post a Comment