The Golden Section and the Collective Unconsciousness —— The Origin of Theory
The birth of any critical theory has a certain theoretical basis, and myth prototype criticism is no exception. The theoretical basis of myth prototype criticism has been controversial in domestic theoretical circles, which can be roughly summarized into four schools.
Among them, the most accepted school thinks that the masterpiece is the British anthropologist James? Fraser's "Ritual School" anthropological thought and Swiss psychologist carl jung's "Collective Unconsciousness" theory and its prototype theory provide theoretical cornerstones for Frye's myth-prototype criticism. René Wellek, a literary theorist, also holds this view. He believes that the criticism of mythological archetypes "comes from the viewpoint of cultural anthropology and Jung, that is, the unconscious is the collective repository of human archetypes and original images". Frye himself said: "Fraser's research based on the simple drama ceremony in The Golden Branch, and Jung's and Jung's research based on the dream of simple romantic stories have the most direct value to prototype critics. "
In the Golden Branches, a great work about anthropology, Fraser's greatest achievement is to find the cultural origin of modern people-ancient rituals and myths. In this book, he discusses the relationship between witchcraft, rituals, myths and other human civilizations, and discusses the daily space of ancient ancestors' life and the survival state based on rituals. Fraser holds that ancient myths, rituals and other traditions that influenced our ancestors are related to the changes of the four seasons and natural rhythms in nature: once we see many natural phenomena such as plant growth, seasonal changes and the change of years, our ancestors will associate them with the survival and reproduction of life. In Fraser's view, the "golden branch custom" of ancient Romans choosing human sacrifices is actually the embodiment of such an idea. As a temple guardian of fugitive slaves, you have to pick a branch from the holy tree to qualify for a duel. This is the simplest naturalistic perspective-symbolizing providence with the reference of "golden branch", and the new challenger must kill the original guardian, which is the ancestor's attempt to create "the resurrection of God" through such a ceremony. Fraser put forward the concepts of "similarity law" and "connection law" to explain the rational logic behind this complex ceremony, which can be regarded as the earliest attempt to explore the connotation of "ceremony" with myth as the text research. In this book, Fraser believes that this myth and ritual about God's resurrection from the dead is an imitation of natural rhythm and plant replacement, and it has also become the source of many myths. This view was also quoted by Frye in Anatomy of Criticism as the initial argument to support his search for rituals and prototypes, which shows the influence of the book Golden Branch on the formation of his theory.
In addition to the golden rule, Jung's theory is also the cornerstone of Frye's achievements, which can not be ignored. As a student of Freud, Jung completely revised the theory of "unconsciousness" put forward by his teacher. In Freud's concept, unconsciousness is only an individual's psychological state, which is a psychological presentation of the individual. On the basis of criticizing inheritance, Jung put forward the theory of "collective unconsciousness". In his view, the individual's unconscious state only exists in infancy, which is a psychological feature of pre-understanding state accompanied by chaos. In the process of baby's growth, the individual unconscious state disappears and is replaced by the collective unconscious.