Hero and wise old man archetype in light of phantastes: A 21st century fantasy story

Pages: 1401-1402
Amandeep (Department of Psychology, Post Graduate Govt. College for Girls, Sector-42, Chandigarh)

Jung’s fascination with archetype are found to have cultural similarities across the globe that ultimately paved way for writers and literary critics to analyse and interpret its symbolism in their writings. Archetypes are primordial patterns of psychic energy that originates in the collective unconscious and is primarily manifested in dreams (Jung, 1959). Since archetypes have an organizing influence on images and ideas; they are recurrent subjective fantasy ideas that are aroused by physical processes and entities found in the external world. Though they themselves are not conscious, conscious images and ideas are variations to them (Huskinson, 2004). Against this backdrop, the present paper attempts to interpret Jung’s two major archetypes: The hero and the wise old man archetype in light of Mac Donald’s fantasy based story of Phantastes.