October
9
ELA 20: Oct 9 Archetypes in Literature / Modern Fairy Tales…
- We started the class today with looking at a list of archetypes often found in children’s stories. These are models or prototypes of characters that are universally recognized. Just by being that archetype in a story, the reader / viewer already has an expectation of what their behaviour and personality may be like. For example, when a pirate is created in a story, the reader will understand what to expect from that character for the most part. The author will create interesting aspects of the character’s personality of role in the story, but for the most part every pirate acts quite the same. Another example may be the Nurturing Mother archetype – again her role in the story will be anticipated and understood for the most part.
- The handout students were given had a list of different types of archetypes, included ones demonstrated by the male and female Gods of Greek mythology as well as male and female archetypes in basic literature.
- We also discussed again the difference between a traditional fairy tale and a modern twist on the storyline.
- To help students recognize both these aspects of children’s literature, the archetypes and modern changes to the story, we watched the first forty or so minutes of Shrek 3. They had a work sheet and were to fill in examples of male and female archetypes (like the male hero / rescuer, the faithful companion; the female fairy godmother, the heroine) and aspects of the traditional nature of the story (everyone lives in a magical kingdom, the princess’s parents are royalty) and the more modern twists on things (the hero is ugly and clumsy, the dragon is a girl and very affectionate) etc. We’ll discuss what they wrote down on Monday.