%0 Journal Article
%T The Primitive in Othello: A Post-Jungian Reading
%A Matthew Fike
%J JUNG: the e-Journal of the Jungian Society for Scholarly Study
%D 2005
%I 
%X Previous Jungian criticism of Othello overlooks the primitive, treats it as an obvious premise, or does not consider it in the context of Jung¡¯s extensive and widely varied statements on the subject. This essay deepens the archetypal approach by discussing the play in terms of the primitive mentality that ultimately thwarts Othello¡¯s individuation. When Jung¡¯s racist rhetoric is subjected to postcolonial critique, what emerges is the helpful concept of the psychologically archaic¡ªareas of the psyche that are less conscious and less differentiated. A post-Jungian emphasis on the archaic then illuminates Desdemona¡¯s attraction to the Moor; war, fetishism, and the supernatural; and the signifying process surrounding the handkerchief. In addition, Jung¡¯s ¡°four stages of eroticism¡± (feminine archetypes) enhance the significance of the sibyl, an archaic figure with civilizing influence. Shakespeare¡¯s use of the primitive culminates in Othello¡¯s final comparison of himself to two primitives (Indian and Turk), and he dies a broken man¡ªaware that projection has caused his downfall
%K Jung
%K Jungian
%K psychology
%K archetype
%K archetypal
%K analytical psychology
%K Othello
%K post-Jungian
%K Shakespeare
%U http://www.thejungiansociety.org/Jung%20Society/e-journal/Volume-1/Fike-2005.html