Classification of female archetypal images in a literary text

Abstract

The article gives a brief overview of the existing classifications of female archetypal images. The author offers his own classification based on the developments of Tom Chetwind, which, in turn, are based on the works of C.G. Jung and are widely used in domestic and foreign psychoanalysis. The terminology of closely related ties used in the classification reflects the understanding of human ties inherited from the era of the tribal system: all members of the tribe were considered as relatives, united by one or another ties, standing in one or another relation to each other. It is noted that archetypal images can appear in a literary text from both the positive and negative (shadow) sides. The main conclusion reached by the author of the article is the following: the proposed classification seems to be the most appropriate for the purposes of literary analysis, since it describes archetypal images not as a set of static features, but as dynamic relationships within the plot. The novelty of the author's approach is also due to the introduction of the concept of "coordinator's point" (the term of I.N. Kalinauskas), which makes the model developed by the author applicable mainly for analyzing the features of the coexistence of "male" and "female" in a literary text. This approach assumes that the masculine and feminine are complementary, are simultaneously in opposition and interaction and are a condition for each other's existence: the masculine is manifested against the background of the feminine and vice versa.