Character & Image
Archetype
An archetype is a primal, universal image, motif, or scheme that recurs in the myths, folklore, and literature of different peoples and epochs. The concept was introduced into psychology by Carl Gustav Jung as a 'primordial image' of the collective unconscious — an inherited structure of the psyche that manifests in dreams, religion, and art (the archetypes of the Mother, the Shadow, the Anima, the Wise Old Man, the Self). In literary studies, the theory of archetypes was developed by Northrop Frye ('Anatomy of Criticism'), who linked them to recurring mythological schemes and 'modes.' Archetypal images include the World Tree, the Road, the Flood, Death-and-Rebirth, and the initiation of the hero. Archetypal analysis reveals the deep, unconscious structures of the artistic image. The archetype (a psychological-mythological concept) must be distinguished from the identically named textological term for a work's original text. Archetypal images appear vividly in Lesia Ukrainka's 'The Forest Song.'
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Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Two levels of generalisation. The literary type is a SOCIAL-HISTORICAL generalisation: it concentrates the traits of a certain group, estate or era ("the superfluous man," a miser) and is bound to a concrete social ground. The archetype is a PRIMAL, universal, trans-historical image-scheme from the collective unconscious (Jung), recurring in the myths and literature of all peoples (the Mother, the Shadow, the Wise Old Man, the Road). The type is born of history; the archetype, of humanity's deep psyche.
