ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 brings Jungian work with images as symbols into literary criticism. Symbols, as Jung defined them, are a means of transferring energy from the unconscious to the ego; from a literary point of view, of converting intuition into culture. Literary studies’ signature methodology of close reading resembles Jungian active imagination and amplification by respect for image as ‘Other’, hermeneutical work on images, and in having the potential to change who we are. A comparison between close reading and active imagination reveals equal and opposite repressions, which are of ‘nature’ in close reading’s inhibitions over the psyche and of ‘art’ in active imagination’s resistance to putting the creativity of the psyche into a cultural framework. Definitions include active imagination and Jungian alchemy. A Jungian literary criticism of Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 19’ (1609), ‘Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws’, evokes Saturn. Further reading explores ‘Individual Dream Symbolism in Relation to Alchemy’ (1936) CW12, ‘Ulysses: A Monologue’ CW15, Jung on Art by Tjeu van den Berk, as well as Jungian criticism by Sally Porterfield, Matthew A. Fike and James Baird. A transdisciplinary section shows how Nicolescu’s understanding of symbols as the language of the hidden third between subject and object corresponds to Jung.
