Herakles & Strong Men in Mythology & Pop Culture; Joseph Campbell; Carl Jung & Archetypal Theory

Period 1: 

We'll complete our discussion/analysis of Herakles, then take a look at Archetypal Theory with Carl Jung in period 2. Poetry/writing time: 15 minutes.

Questions to consider: What's up with our fascination with strongman Hercules? What role does gender play in our culture regarding "strength"?

Take 5-10 minutes to read and react in writing to any of the following contemporary articles:

• Women Rate the Strongest Men Attractive
• 5 Reasons to Love American Men
• Why Men Don't Like Strong, Independent Women

Here are some other important strong men in mythology:

• Sampson

• Superman
• The Hulk & The Hulk (Character Bio)
• Gilgamesh (see homework) 

In his book Pathways to Bliss, Joseph Campbell defines four functions of myths:

• Evoke existential thought (answer: what is the meaning of my life?)
• Present an image of the cosmos (and your relation to it)
• Validate society or culture (& its rules)
• Make sense of a person's stages of life (birth, adolescence, adulthood, old age, death)

Joseph Campbell's hero's journey

• Crash Course #25 (Hero's Journey)

Period 2: 

Archetypal Theory or Myth Criticism

Please watch these two videos (about 25 min. total) and outline the key and important points. Carl Jung's theories:

A. Introduction to Carl Jung: The Psyche, Archetypes, and the Collective Unconscious

B. Introduction to Carl Jung: Individuation, the Persona, The Shadow and the Self

The Collective Unconscious is a collection of latent images, not in one’s personal unconscious but from the ancestral past, as well as pre-human or animal ancestors. Not inherited, the Collective Unconscious belongs to all of us in a certain culture and time. Latent images manifest from our unconscious minds so that we can recognize patterns and symbols in an icon or persona. It is these primal symbols and concepts that create the tropes we use in storytelling. A full list of tropes can be found here.

C.G. Jung: Psychology of the Unconscious
Here's a link referring to Jung's theory of Archetypes

J.G. Frazer: The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion

Arche = original
Typos = form

Patterns, as those found often in literature, originate in the collective unconscious.

Both plots and characters of literary works can be examined for archetypal patterns.

In literary criticism, the field of Myth Criticism examines a text and asks:

1. How does the story resemble other stories in plot, character, setting or use of symbols?
2. Are archetypes presented, such as quests, initiations, scapegoats, descending, or withdrawals and returns?
3. Does the protagonist undergo any kind of transformation (such as movement from innocence to experience) that seems archetypal?
4. Are there any specific allusions to myths that shed light on the text?

Myth critics: Joseph Campbell & Northrop Frye

More Archetypes to use in writing:

• Traditional Plot Archetypes #1
• Traditional Character Archetypes #2

Then, we'll take a look at Northrop Frye's theories. Frye was born in Quebec, Canada and lived in New Brunswick, Canada and taught at the University of Toronto--just hours away across our lake. See handouts/links. In particular (among other literary criticism theories...) Frye used Jung to create his own system of mythological criticism. Here are some basic ideas he came up with...

• Spring archetypes
• Summer archetypes
• Autumn archetypes
• Winter archetypes

As we continue our myth and cultural unit, let's add Frye and Jung's theories to Campbell's for a bigger picture of examining mythology.

HOMEWORK: Read the handout on Stanley Hall, Pierre Janet, & Eliot Aronson. Apply these key psychological ideas to the novel. Complete your reading of Dead Father's Club. Expect a quiz and discussion on the book. Consider Freud's theories (as well as those psychologists above) to explain Phillip's mental conflicts in the book. Read Chapter 1 of The Epic of Gilgamesh.