Why study archetypes?

Since the dawn of storytelling, humanity has formed narratives based on common characteristics that many people share. The brave, strong warrior…the innocent, pure maiden…the wise elder…the hermit…the femme fatale. All of these archetypes, according to psychologist Carl Jung, “are embedded deep in humanity’s collective unconscious and involve racial memories of situations, events, and relations that have been a part of human experience from the beginning.” With this collective unconscious, we have created oral and written literature. 

The first unit of this course focuses on examining the main female archetypes present in Philippine literature. In nearly all of the texts included in this curriculum, we see recurring “characters”. It is of interest to us to discuss how these archetypes have either evolved or remained the same throughout the three types of literature in this course: English, Spanish, and vernacular languages (e.g. Tagalog, Cebuano, Waray, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Danao, Manobo, etc.).

Key Questions: 

1. What can archetypes tell us about how women were perceived throughout history? 
2. How has colonialism shaped these archetypes? 
3. How can women be agents in reforming or defying the archetypes? Why is this important?

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Main female archetypes

*The following material was paraphrased and condensed using Gilda Fernandez-Cordero’s ethnographic book Being Filipino (GCF Books, 1981). The book features line drawings by the artist Bencab. These archetypes are the interpretations of several Filipina scholars. As this course teaches us to critique archetypes in all their forms, this book is not exempt from those criticisms. Like all the other texts, it is open to discussion. *

Cordero-Fernando, Gilda, editor. Being Filipino: Writings. GCF Books, 1981.