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odd_buttons) wrote2004-09-30 08:24 am
odd_buttons) wrote2004-09-30 08:24 am
Archetype
The following is an excerpt from Part III of the book Making Shapely Fiction, by Jerome Stern. The first two parts are very much worth reading as well. The book is available in paperback.
Archetype
An archetype suggests mythical divinities, ancient forces, and primal experiences. A father in a story might be a patriarchal archetype reminding readers of the notion of fatherhood, kingship, Zeus, or God the Father. A mother may intimate motherhood, the idea of nurturing, or Mother Earth.
Birth, coming of age, dying -- the rhythms of day and night, summer and winter -- are archetypal events. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist, said that all people, regardless of their culture, hold these experiences in their collective unconscious and naturally gravitate to stories that reflect human history through archetypal symbols.
Some writers try to create figures that are archetypes before they are characters. These usually don't come to life on the page. Sometimes writers leave these effigies unnamed since they fear that specificity might diminish them as archetypes. These ponderous creations, appelated something like "The Mother" or "The Artist," often seem carved out of stone.
Great writers have understood that if you create a fresh, individual character or a vivid, moving experience you suggest all human experience -- all that has gone before and that is yet to come. The more specific and individuated a characters is -- like Flaubert's Emma Bovary or Joyce's Stephen Dedalus or Twain's Huck Finn -- the more universal and archetypal the character can be. If you're afraid that specificity of detail limits the significance of your characters, you'll cut yourself off from your most original and vital material.
See Myth, Objective Correlative, Stereotype, Symbolism.
Archetype
An archetype suggests mythical divinities, ancient forces, and primal experiences. A father in a story might be a patriarchal archetype reminding readers of the notion of fatherhood, kingship, Zeus, or God the Father. A mother may intimate motherhood, the idea of nurturing, or Mother Earth.
Birth, coming of age, dying -- the rhythms of day and night, summer and winter -- are archetypal events. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist, said that all people, regardless of their culture, hold these experiences in their collective unconscious and naturally gravitate to stories that reflect human history through archetypal symbols.
Some writers try to create figures that are archetypes before they are characters. These usually don't come to life on the page. Sometimes writers leave these effigies unnamed since they fear that specificity might diminish them as archetypes. These ponderous creations, appelated something like "The Mother" or "The Artist," often seem carved out of stone.
Great writers have understood that if you create a fresh, individual character or a vivid, moving experience you suggest all human experience -- all that has gone before and that is yet to come. The more specific and individuated a characters is -- like Flaubert's Emma Bovary or Joyce's Stephen Dedalus or Twain's Huck Finn -- the more universal and archetypal the character can be. If you're afraid that specificity of detail limits the significance of your characters, you'll cut yourself off from your most original and vital material.
See Myth, Objective Correlative, Stereotype, Symbolism.