A newborn babe having words with the older folks. Supernatural animals. Marathon battles. Horrific beasts. In a word, Biag ni Lam-ang is an epic made happen by dint of human imagination. Carl Jung, a psychologist, postulated that "humankind has a 'collective unconscious', a kind of universal psyche, which is manifested in dreams and myths and which harbors themes and images that we all inherit." This is the reason why some literary masterpieces are far removed from reality, from what's really tangible and factual.
Archetypal criticism defines Biag ni Lam-ang as anti-realism for it is not confined in the everyday. It comes with the impossible that any human fancies could lay a hand on. Unlike other literary works, Biag ni Lam-ang "does not imitate the world but rather the total dream of humankind". (Jung)
Reference:
http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/archetypal.crit.html
No comments:
Post a Comment