Archetypal Criticism after Jung

This paper aims at studying different aspects of archetypal criticism from traditional and modern perspectives. Archetypal criticism is the approach of finding common and unconscious roots of human behavior and actions in literature. By addressing Jung’s as well as Post-Jungian notions, this paper contends to offer a fairly comprehensive picture of the approach and remove some common misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the criticism. The problem is more aggravated in Iran as, due to insufficient knowledge of English or German, access to first rate sources is limited. Moreover, few works have been translated into Persian and that leads to improper understating of archetypal criticism. This approach, if adopted with insight, can help readers overcome at least some of the obstacles standing in the way of understanding not only literature but also dreams, dream works, fairy tales, and myths. It will also make researchers aware of the pitfalls in archetypal criticism.