| In this thesis, I apply the Jungian model of mother archetypes to examine characters in various works of Southwest Literature. The Southwest authors whose works I explore, primarily Paula Gunn Allen, Rudolfo Anaya, Ana Castillo, and Joy Harjo provide models of mother archetypes that can be seen as warrior figures that counterbalance the negative effects of colonization, religious imposition, and modernization inherent to the Southwest. Through the process of renewing ancient mother archetypal goddesses into self-reflective role models, the characters in these works reconnect spiritually with the earth and with others. Essentially, these authors show that inscribing mother archetypes into art, focusing on mother archetypal art, or reconnecting with mother archetypes through symbolic elements in nature, humans may find balance in contemporary times, when so many separations between the self and spirituality, the self and Mother energies, and the self and nature cause dysfunction. |
