For
this last paper, I have chosen the mythical and archetypical criticism to
write my work. I am going to explain this critical approach using one of
my papers which I have studied before, “Proserpina” by Dante
Gabriel Rossetti.
In
order to understand better what this approach consist in, we should have
a look at the definitions of Myth and archetype. The
myths are answers to those questions that the classical society had. The
mythology has been studied from different schools such as functionalism ,
which says that the myths do not answer transcendental questions, but they
answer question such as believes, institutions and behaviours. For them,
there is not any interpretation. However, the structuralism says the myth
has a symbolic function such as the language which is the vehicle of classification
and association forms. Its aim is organizing the experience. (Coronel,Marco A. MitLat.) The archetypes are the recurring images, characters,
themes, or other literary phenomenon that have been in literature from the
beginning and regularly reappears (Siegel, Kristi. Archetype)
These
approaches study the works according to the archetypes and the relation of
this with myths, which are studied by sciences such as anthropology, psychology
and the history of culture. From the point of view of this approach, it makes
reference to some elements, which can be an idea, character, image or situation
that have several characteristics in common and are considered primitives,
but at the same time generals and universals. We can
use the term universal because their meaning is the same or a similar one
for the majority of societies. These terms are used by different communities,
not only in time but also in space and from the psychological point of view;
these characteristics are able to provoke a universal answer.
Archetypal
criticism gets its impetus from psychologist Carl Jung, who postulated that
humankind has a "collective unconscious," a kind of universal psyche, which
is manifested in dreams and myths and which harbors themes and images that
we all inherit. Literature, therefore, imitates not the world but rather
the "total dream of humankind." (Delahoyde, Michael.
archetypal.crit
)
However, we can find some
drawbacks in the archetypal criticism: the Jungian critic is sometimes guilty
of finding an "archetype" in every image, character, and twist of plot; this
approach is not able to judge the greatness of an artistic work solely on
the presence of archetypal symbols, for, although Macbeth is replete with
archetypal symbolism and Jung's archetypes, as he presents them, are very
much culturally and racially specific: e.g., to claim that dreaming of a
"black man" is archetypally symbolic of the "shadow
figure".(
TCG's, arch)
As
I said in Rossetti’s work, he uses the myth of
Proserpina in order to make reference to one of his lovers, Jane Morris.
So, here we can find one of the themes that this approach uses. Confrontation
between what is real and what is fantastic. He is using a “fantastic” story
to tell us what his feelings are and what his story is about. Other elements
related to that approach are easy to find not only throughout the poem, but
also in the picture: The maiden as the main character of his work, the natural
elements; the hair of Proserpina symbolizing the serpent, the colours used
in the pictures such as black, white, green; the sin fruit with the bit showing
the colour red.
Everything
I have mention has a meaning in this approach. The color red is the symbol
of blood, sacrifice, violent passion, desire which can be related with the
sin that Proserpine committed. The color white has a double connotation.
It can be interpreted such as purity innocence, but on the other hand death,
horror, something supernatural. The color black means mystery, chaos, death,
the unknown, melancholy. These can be applied to the
contrast of light used by Rossetti in the picture. He has recreated the image
of Proserpine when she stays in hell, a mysterious place where everything
is dark and he also wants to show through the poem and the contrast of light
the melancholy that the author is suffering because he is not with his lover
and on the other hand the melancholy of Proserpina, who wants to stay with
her mother but she cannot do it. ( Mitgriega)
The
woman for this approach can have several meanings: the mysteries of life,
death (the beginning and the end) fertility, birth, wealth, but also witch,
femme fatale, sensibility, prostitute, darkness, death, mermaid. This negative connotation con also be related
to the meaning of the serpent: sexual desire, corruption, sensuality, destruction
symbol, mystery,
As
a conclusion, the aim of this approach is to find out how we can look in
a work for this kind of structures and these universal symbols which allow
us to describe a work as classic, universal, because they can produce a similar
human response not only at the same time, but also at different times and
places of the history.
The
archetypical criticism has several points in common with the psychological
criticism, but it researches the personality of each individual and the psychoanalysis
considers the literary work as a product of neurosis. The mythology and archetypical
criticism consider the literary work such as a manifestation of those vital
strengths that rise from the “psique” of the
whole village.( Garcia, Ana. Narrative)
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm 20.05.06
http://www.usd.edu/~tgannon/crit.html#arch
22.05.06
16.11.04