Edward Burne-Jones, The Beguiling of Merlin (1874)
CHAPTER 9
MYTHOPOEI C LI TERARY CONSCI OUSNESSBesides the obvious personal sources, creative fantasy also draws
upon the forgotten and long buried primitive mind with its host of
images, which are to be found in mythologies of all ages and
peoples. The sum of these images constitutes the collective
unconscious, a heritage which is potentially present in every
individual ... This is the reason why mythological images are able
to arise spontaneously over and over again, and to agree with one
another not only in all the corners of the wide earth, but at all
times (Jung, CW 5, p. xxix).
Re-immersion in the state of participation mystique is the secret of
artistic creation and of the effect which great art has upon us, for
at that level of experience it is no longer the weal or woe of the
individual that counts, but the life of the collective. That is why
every great work of art is objective and impersonal, and yet
profoundly moving. And that is also why the personal life of the
artist is at most a help or a hindrance, but is never essential to his
creative task (Jung, CW 15, par. 162).9.1 I magination and Literary Consciousness
I n 1740 when Samuel Richardson’s work of fiction Pamela was published it
not only represented the modern manifestation of the popular novel, as we know it
today, but it provided an intense emotional and imaginative jolt to thousands of
individuals at a level previously unknown to them; it taught the middle classes the
use (or re-use) of imagination. I n fact, novel writing now became the fastest-
growing industry in Europe (Wilson, 2006:256). Following in Pamela’s wake was