Jungian literary analysis is a type of literary criticism that uses the theories and concepts of Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, to interpret and understand literature. Jung's theories focus on the collective unconscious, which is a shared pool of unconscious thoughts and experiences that are inherited from our ancestors and shape our individual and collective psyche. Jung believed that the collective unconscious contains archetypes, which are universal symbols or themes that are found in the myths, legends, and folklore of all cultures. These archetypes can appear in literature as well, and can be used to understand the characters, symbols, and themes that appear in a work of literature.
One of the key concepts in Jungian literary analysis is the idea of the self, which is the central organizing principle of the psyche. The self is composed of both the conscious and unconscious mind, and it is the source of our personal identity. In literature, the self is often represented by the main character or protagonist, and their journey or development can be seen as a representation of the journey of the self.
Another important concept in Jungian literary analysis is the idea of the shadow, which is the part of the psyche that contains the qualities and traits that we reject or suppress because they are unacceptable to ourselves or to society. The shadow is often represented in literature as the antagonist or a secondary character who embodies the qualities that the main character or protagonist represses. The conflict between the main character and the shadow can be seen as a representation of the internal struggle between the conscious and unconscious mind.
Jungian literary analysis can also be used to understand the symbolism and themes that appear in a work of literature. Jung believed that symbols and themes in literature often have a universal meaning that resonates with readers on a deeper level. For example, the archetype of the hero's journey, which is found in many works of literature, can be seen as a symbol of the journey of the self and the quest for self-discovery and personal growth.
In conclusion, Jungian literary analysis is a useful tool for interpreting and understanding literature by using the theories and concepts of Carl Jung. It can be used to understand the characters, symbols, and themes that appear in a work of literature, and to explore the psychological and emotional aspects of the human experience that are depicted in literature.
Freudian and Jungian Literary Analysis: Under Milk Wood
She served as a mediator not just between Benjy and the world in the novel but as the medium through which Faulkner perceived mythological images. They were valued by their employers as genealogists, historians and preservers sometimes creators of princely lineages, and their poems were preserved by generations of the recipient family as proof of status. And your weedkiller biscuit. He sees, hears, and smells the world around him without making logical judgments about it. I tried to tell it again, the same story through the eyes of another brother.
It was still not complete, not until fifteen years after the book was published when I wrote as an appendix to another book the final effort to get the story told and off my mind, so that I myself could have some peace from it. Freud is never certain as to the true nature of the Wolf Mans dream, intermingled as it is with reality, however he does assert that displacement is at the root of the patients castration fears Freud, 1979: 292. This god-eating is, therefore, once again a truncating of the future envisioned by the visionary. Viewed through notions of the collective unconscious however, these personal leitmotifs become universal symbols of the dichotomy between man and woman and the images used reveal themselves as not so much specific to Thomas biography but projections of the collective unconscious. The symbolism, heralding from the collective unconscious elevates the text from something more than personal expression.
Jungian Literary Criticism The Essential Guide, 1st Edition By Susan Rowland
Hansel and Gretel is, therefore, a god-eating story in which the eater is thwarted because the witch represents the older path that seeks its own continuation: a pathway that, in concrete and vile terms, was rejected by the Nazis as children ridding themselves of the Old Jew in Auschwitz and Belsen. We hurried downstairs, and as soon as I was outside I woke up. The power of love, as it were, has to be 'incarnated' in a child-like adult, which itself has cannibalistic echoes. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Condensation This is, perhaps, the most common dream feature and is what gives dreams their sparse, confusing quality.
Roman Polanski, Sharon's Hollywood director husband was, in Valentine Smith fashion, later 'crucified in the newspapers' for having had 'child sex'. The Magician Within: Accessing the Shaman in the Male Psyche. Why hast Thou forsaken me? Within the collective unconscious and due in the most part to mans propensity for symbol creation, are archetypal images and notions that organise our thoughts and allow us to engage with a simplified existence. Jungian analysis is a systematic examination and cultivation of the inner life. Jung and Christianity: The Challenge of Reconciliation. Living Archetypes: The selected works of Anthony Stevens. Carl Jung, perceived the human mind as made up of an unconscious divided into two discreet parts.
Initially, as Paul Ferris asserts in his notes to Dylan Thomas Collected Letters Ferris, 1985: 597 Under Milk Wood was entitled The Town the was Mad and, when viewed from a psychoanalytic perspective, we can appreciate this sentiment. In Plaskow and Christ ed. It will not only relate such symbols to the poets own poetic vision but will, through Jungian theory, expand these so that they encompass universal archetypes and concepts such as the collective unconscious that structures the unconscious and, inevitably finds its way into works of a creative nature. A creative relationship between the ego and unconscious is now possible. . Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications.
Just how our parents feed upon us is not so mysterious from a practical modern man's perspective; they simply have us educated in order to become successful money-makers so that we are able to care for them in their old age: but from a parasitical man's point of view fairytales are about 'magic' and 'god-eating' is a ritual, the purpose of which is to obtain mana, that is, the magical properties of the eaten. The suggestion is that there was a time when emotional behaviour and cognition were less developed and the older brain predominated. In a sense she is more sensible: ovens are for cooking. The State University of New York Press. To even more fully comprehend how Caddy represents the intuitive function, we must move beyond the boundaries of the novel and back to the artist, back to the beginning of this paper to my discussion of the image which came to Faulkner, the image from which the story emerged: Caddy climbing a pear tree, her brothers looking up at her muddy drawers.
General amplification establishes a collective context tothe dream enabling it to be seen as referring not only to a personal psychic situationbut also to a general, collective problem common to all human experience. We're all familiar with the child 'tied to mother's apron strings', the 'mother's boy' or 'daddy's little girl', perpetually infantile Peter Pans and Jewish Princesses who never 'grew up' because they were never encouraged to become independent or, as Jung says, individuated5 individuals. The accessible approach of Jungian Literary Criticism: the essential guide will appeal to academics and students of literary studies, Jungian and post-Jungian studies, literary theory, environmental humanities and ecocentrism. General amplification is offeredby the analyst. Taboos, as we know, are such because what is forbidden is - or has been - attractive at some stage in social development.
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. There is an obvious parallel with Jung's idea of the archetypes 'crystallising out' over time. To live into the fullness of our being is the work and goal of a lifetime, a process Jung termed individuation. Because he performed many wonders; turning water into wine John 2: 9 , raising the dead John 11: 38 , and walking on water John 6: 19 - to name but just a few of the miraculous manifestations of his gifts. Such notions are based on idealised conceptions and are termed by Jung the anima relating to the female ideal held by the male and the animus relating to the male ideal held by the female.
What is Jungian Literary Criticism? (with pictures)
This is what Jung terms the 'individuation process' between a man and a woman. It is imperative, Jung says, that "you say what you have to say to that figure and listen to what he or she has to say. He is the sound. For Freud, a lock or the keyhole in a lock is a vagina, and a key is a penis. Jung disagreed with Freuds notion of the dreamwork and his method of free association whereby the analysand recalls a dream and lets their mind wander through the myriad of different unconscious connections only to be unravelled and assessed by the analyst.
Others have accused him of a romanticised and prejudicial promotion of 'primitivism' through the medium of archetypal theory. This article may be Please help October 2022 Jungian archetypes are a concept from psychology that refers to a universal, inherited idea, pattern of thought, or image that is present in the According to Jung, archetypes are innate patterns of thought and behavior that strive for realization within an individual's environment. The technique assumes that the imagination is a reality just as real as any other reality for example, external reality. Amplification requires of the Jungian analyst an extensive, even an "encyclopedic" knowledge of myths, fairy tales, folktales, art, literature, and culture in order to specify precisely which parallels are archetypally pertinent. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1967.
