A Myth And Archetypal Analysis Of Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage The Bones

American woman writer Jesmyn Ward is the new blood among American Southern writers.Her works reflect her experience,and her language is fierce but poetic with strong emotion.Her novel Salvage the Bones has gained much critical attention since its publication.NBA committee remarks that the rhetorical devices of simile and metaphor show Ward’s exquisite skill of narrating(National Book Foundation,2011).This thesis aims to study Salvage the Bones from the perspective of myth and archetypal criticism.Archetypal literary criticism is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes in the narrative,symbols,images,and character types in literary work.This thesis aims to analyze archetypal characters,themes,and imagery in Salvage the Bones based on Northrope Frye’s myth and archetypal theory,develop further understanding on the theme of Salvage the Bones and the writer’s thoughts,and explore the literary value of the novel,thus making it a supplement for studies made by our predecessors.This thesis is divided into five parts.Chapter One is Introduction which includes a general introduction to Jesmyn Ward and her works,her literary achievement,the research objective,significance and question,literature reviews on Salvage the Bones abroad and at home since 2011 and the theoretical basis.Chapter Two analyzes the archetypal characters of Medea,Jason and the Good Mother.Chapter Three deals with the archetypal themes of life and death,love and hatred,suffering and salvation.Chapter Four focuses on the archetypal imagery,including Noah’s ark,the image of water,egg and dog.It is concluded that approached with the myth and archetypal criticism,Ward’s Salvage the Bones is a typical archetypal novel which presents Ward’s inheritance of the western culture and concerns about her homeland,thus enhancing the novel’s readability and literary merits.