ABSTRACT
C. G. Jung responds to the claim that Pierre Benoît’s L’Atlantide plagiarizes Henry Rider Haggard’s She. Jung dismisses the possible plagiaristic relationship as either cryptomnesia or archetypal inspiration, but he is misinformed about the case and unfamiliar with Benoît’s life. This chapter critiques Jung’s statements about Benoît and then considers the argument for plagiarism that was published in The French Quarterly in 1919‒20. Contrary to Cornelia Brunner’s belief that Benoît was unfairly accused of plagiarism, neither the typical reply (that L’Atlantide reflects the author’s African experience and historical knowledge) nor the reading of the novel that arose in Jung’s 1925 seminar adequately refutes the plagiarism charge. As with She, a depth-psychological reading of L’Atlantide shows the danger of seeking the anima archetype itself rather than experiencing the anima in a relationship with an available woman. But even if literary analogies, including the Circe myth, suggest that Haggard and Benoît may have tapped into the same archetypal vein, the novels’ similarities and verbal echoes cannot be dismissed outright.
