Seven Sleepers As Archetype In Literature

SEVEN SLEEPERS AS AN ARCHETYPE IN LITERATURE

Old myths, old gods, old heroes have never died. They are only sleeping at the bottom of our mind, waiting for our call. We have need for them. They represent the wisdom of our race. — Stanley Kunitz Introduction Archetypes enrich our interaction literature and help us discover the layers of meaning the texts convey. They also help us acknowledge the values of different cultures and interconnectedness in a universal perspective. Archetypal patterns generally serve to clarify the individual texts in relation to broader patterns. Seven Sleepers of Ephesus may not be considered as archetypes by many scholars but we can see the pattern of that story in various pieces of literature for centuries. The pattern is not that prevalent those such as good and evil, a journey, quest, or death and rebirth, but the situation is recurrently employed by many authors. In this paper, I will examine the situation of Seven Sleepers as archetypes even if there are some differences in details. Furthermore, one can argue that although

According to Abrams, “in literary criticism the term archetype denotes recurrent narrative designs, patterns of action, character-types, themes, and images which are identifiable in a wide variety of works of literature, as well as in myths, dreams, and even social rituals” (1999,12). Archetypal criticism argues that an archetype may determine the form and function of literary works. That is, a text 's meaning can be shaped by cultural and psychological myths. Archetypes are the basic forms embodied in recurring images, symbols, or patterns which may include