This project grew out of the class discussions we have had on characters, especially those that highlighted how character motivation was created, impacted, and enacted. Our class discussion of feminism in fantasy literature, particularly Eowyn in Lord of the Rings, made us extremely interested in how to examine characters in regards to their actions and motivations. Archetypes give us another way to articulate and examine the multiple roles and complexities of characters (such as the male characters and their varying archetypes), particularly those of women (who were granted expression to primarily one archetype), and to understand and critique the choices of fantasy literature.
Introduction
Rationale
Characters are the crux of fantasy literature, and reader’s entry and inhabitance within fantasy lives. As such, understanding how they function and operate is important for discerning readers and writers of the genre, especially those who value feminism and complex female characters. One such tool for understanding the genre and the women within it is that of archetypes. Originally pioneered by Carl Jung, archetypes are repeating patterns: The thousands of footfalls of created characters creating familiar paths in the foundations that ground humankind’s stories.
Archetypes have been used as a tool to discuss women in fantasy literature before, as seen in Terri Frontyia’s article “Archetypes, Stereotypes, and the Female Hero: Transformations in Contemporary Perspectives.” In her article, Frontyia critiques the lack of complexity of women characters compared to men, their motivation reduced to biological determinism and stereotypes (16-17). Frontvia calls out “cardboard characters” that are built on these stereotypes and praises efforts to redraw heroism on non-gendered lines and looks with hope toward “the hero based on human needs” as opposed to being artificially gendered (18). Reading her article, we understand that the constitution, agency, and authenticity of a character—important traits to their well-roundedness—can be described by the archetypes evident in them and their stories. This project investigates how four of these archetypes, the Goddess, Orphan, Warrior, and Shadow, manifest in recent fantasy literature. With archetypes as our umbrella theme, we will apply specific lenses like modernism and feminism that focus/change the archetype being examined.