Film Word Of The Week: Archetype

by Kierston Drier

We have an anecdote to start off today’s Word of the Week. In a grade 11 high school english class, this columnist asked what the difference was between an Archetype and a Stereotype- and it stumped the English teacher. Eventually, the teacher explained that an Archetype has a positive connotation and that Stereotype had a negative one- and while that is an arguable point, it isn’t exactly accurate. So today, we aim to clear these definitions up. And yes, through the lense of film and television.

An Archetype, a term coined by Carl Jung, student of the infamous Freud (of the “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”) describes a figure-type of trope that recurs throughout history in various cultures. The definition becomes increasingly dense when examined through the lense of psychology, philosophy, cultural politics and literature, but suffice to say it relates to the…