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Description:
What do “characterization” and “archetype” mean? How are they different? This video defines both of these related terms and explains when and how each could be used in literature.
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:03
Power in Literature:
- 00:05
Characterization and Archetype, a la Shmoop.
- 00:09
Another vocab word we've used is
- 00:12
character or characterization, which maps
Full Transcript
- 00:15
to another five dollar word: archetype.
- 00:19
Can you talk about those terms and
- 00:22
apply them to tangible literature
- 00:24
What does characterization and archetype mean?
- 00:28
An archetype is a very specific type of character that
- 00:31
you'll see throughout literature
- 00:33
it's basically that every story
- 00:36
or almost every story has the wise
- 00:40
father figure: Atticus.
- 00:43
Or has the kind of spunky youthful
- 00:48
kid, that's Scout. etc.
- 00:50
If there are, say, fifty archetypes not every story has all fifty.
- 00:54
But there are specific types of characters that you see in every story.
- 00:57
So for instance Holden and Scout are kind of the same archetype
- 01:02
even though they're totally different characters
- 01:04
they're both this kind of youthful spunky character
- 01:07
who doesn't quite realize what it means to be an adult
- 01:10
and that's okay cause they're young.
- 01:11
so even characters who seem very different can be filling the same archetypal role.
- 01:16
Characterization, I love characterization, is the way
- 01:20
that an author describes a character
- 01:24
or shows what a character is all about.
- 01:26
We most often think of characterization as
- 01:28
description and that is one type of characterization: direct characterization
- 01:32
the author will say to us, this character
- 01:36
is funny and interesting and
- 01:39
a little bit naïve.
- 01:41
And they might actually say those words
- 01:44
instead, there are other tools that authors use
- 01:47
like, what clothes do they wear, what's their social status
- 01:51
do they have any props that describe them
- 01:54
You could say, you’re writing a story, you could say like,
- 01:58
"Mike was a tough guy," direct characterization,
- 02:01
or you could be like: “Mike wore ripped jeans and like, a cutoff t-shirt
- 02:06
and like, carried a gun with him,"
- 02:07
or something, and you get, without actually describing
- 02:11
what the character is like, you're able to express that same thing.
- 02:14
You show, you don’t tell
- 02:15
Exactly. First rule of writing.
- 02:18
A lot of spy movies its funny, you have this
- 02:20
mother earth wonderful little old lady
- 02:23
who has a charming tea service with
- 02:26
the some evil forces
- 02:29
but then the thing ends and she takes out a recorder and gun from her purse
- 02:33
and you realize, "oh she's the bad guy."
- 02:36
What does characterization and archetype mean?
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