Question

How do archetypes function in literary works ?

Answer 1

Hint:An archetype is a term used for an idea, symbol, pattern, or character in a story. It’s an element in a story that appears again and again in stories from different cultures around the world and symbolises something universal in the human experience. Example: A hero, a protagonist, a lover etc. We will discuss how these archetypes function in literary works in the complete answer below.

Complete answer:
Let us discuss what is the function of archetypes in literature.

The concept of archetypes was first developed by a psychologist Carl Jung, who discovered certain broad similarities among beliefs, practices and myths from all over the world. In particular, he noticed that stories would have a heroic character that will have similar elements, and that all cultural heroes had certain broad attributes common among the stories or literary works around the world . He concluded this was because human beings all shared a “collective unconscious” which is a set of hard-wired expectations and preferences about stories. Just in the same way that there is a “universal grammar” underlying beneath all human languages, there may be a “universal grammar” of good stories!

Note:Archetypes are a crucial part of the elements that makes a story compelling. The best storytellers draw on universal archetypes in crafting their stories to reach out to a greater audience , and thus tap into something elemental in the human mind. In many cases, they do this automatically, without ever planning or intending to write an archetypal story.