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Chapter Two: Jungian Theory and the New Novel of Latin America
- University of Iowa Press
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1 00 IUNGIAN THEORY AND ·THE NEW NOVEL OF L~~TIN AMERICA What do we mean by the gender and the sex-related terms used so far: man, wornan, male, female, masculine, and feminine? "Man" and "woman," like the term "sex," will, in this study, be limited to biology. "Male" and "female," as nouns, will also be biological designations, while the adjectJive forms will be social as well as biological. We make this distinction because certain functions (such as biological paternity or maternity) often belong necessarily to males or to females, while other roles (such as judging or nurturing) traditionally have tended to be fulfilled predominantly, but not exclusively, by one or the other. The most elusive terms of all, "masculine" and "feminine," will be defined in accordance with Carl Jung's theories. Jung recognized, in his anima/animus archetypes, the presence of elements of the "other" in all members of each sex. Jung's insight will be central to our discussion of the basic difference between the ne\v novel of Spanish America and Brazil. Because our interest lies in the representation of life in art and in questions of verisimilitude (in Todorov's sense of the term, as noted in chapter I), we do not intend to enter into a debate on the accuracy or "truth" of Jung's psychological theory. We find it fruitful, however, to adopt both Jung's schemata for defining the masculine and feminine and his view that recognizing 26 ex::> JUNGIAN THEORY AND THE NEW NOVEL contrasexualityl is essential to individuation, or full psychic, social, and spiritual development. Among Jung's many contributions to the field of psychology, the most relevant to our inquiry is his study of myth and of mythic traditions, written and oral, from all over the world. For Jung myth manifests the primordial "truths" of humankind throughout the ages.2 Jung expounded his theory metaphorically, using the dreams of the individual, along with the legends and stories of diverse cultures, to explain individual psychic realities. Jung called the personality the "psyche." The psyche, according to Jung, is comprised of three levels: consciousness, the personal unconscious , and the collective unconscious. The ego, which organizes the conscious mind, is the "gatekeeper to consciousness" (Hall and Nordby 34) and therefore determines what information can reach the level of awareness . The personal unconscious is the repository for experiences that have not reached consciousness. Jung's work on the collective unconscious, which made him a very controversial figure within the scientific community , ranks as one of his most singular contributions to psychoanalytic theory. Unlike the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious is not dependent on personal experience, because its contents have not been made manifest within the life of the person; rather, they are "a reservoir of latent images, usually called primordial images ... [inherited] from his ancestral past, ... predispositions or potentialities for experiencing and responding to the world in the same ways that his ancestors did" (Hall and Nordby 39). The now well-known term for these primordial images is "archetype." There are an enormous number of archetypes, according to Jung, as many as there are typical life situations ("Concept" 66), but four of them play an especially important role in the development of the individual and thus in the foundation of one's personality: the persona, the outward identity (sometimes called the "conformity" archetype, Hall and Nordby 44); the anima or the animus, which represents the feminine or the masculine principle within the human psyche (Hall and Nordby 46); the shadow, another component of the unconscious representing the repressed side of the psyche (Walrond-Skinner 3 15); and the self, "the organizing principle of the personality," an inner guiding factor not to be confused with the ego, which is the outer organizer of the conscious mind (Hall and Nordby 51). Individuation, the process of development from "undifferentiated [3.235.180.245] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:43 GMT) JUNGIAN THEORY AND THE NEW NOVEL c::x) 27 wholenF~s" (the most primitive state) to differentiated personality (the highrst developrnent) (Hall and Nordby 8 I) takes place within archetypes , within individuals, and within societies. Seeking to elucidate this development, Eugene Monick offers a "topographical model of the psyche" (69) that illustrates the process of individuation. For Monick, the progression moves from Psychoid Unconscious, represented by the hermaphrodite or undifferentiated sexual merger, through Old Consciousness (which is matriarchal) and Present Consciousness (which is patriarchal) to l'~ew Consciousness, the unus mundus, the state of individuation...