Two roots
In The Golden Bough the anthropologist James Frazer compared magic and ritual worldwide, finding shared patterns such as the dying and reviving vegetation god. The psychologist Carl Jung proposed archetypes such as the shadow, anima and animus, and wise old man in a shared collective unconscious. Archetypal criticism drew on both.
Frye's system
In Anatomy of Criticism Northrop Frye treated literature as an ordered whole and matched four narrative mythoi to the seasons:
- Spring, comedy: birth, renewal and a new society
- Summer, romance: the hero's quest and triumph
- Autumn, tragedy: the hero's fall and death
- Winter, irony and satire: chaos and a world without heroes
Applications and critiques
Archetypes such as water, the garden, the journey, initiation and the scapegoat link ancient myth to modern fiction, and the method has been applied to Korean myths and poetry. Critics say it erases individual style and historical and social context by reducing works to one universal pattern.
References
- Frye, N. (1957). Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton University Press.
- Frazer, J. G. (1922). The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (abridged ed.). Macmillan.
- Jung, C. G. (1959). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Collected Works, Vol. 9, Part 1). Princeton University Press.
- Guerin, W. L., et al. (2011). A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.