The Recovery of Archaic Truth in Literature: Light and Darkness in the Perception of Space in the Human Imagination

Abstract

While the appeal of both inner and outer space of world and consciousness presents an inexhaustible source for the artist and writer, primitive memories remain in the archaic makeup of human beings that continue to haunt as well as enchant the human mind. The archaic mind is evident not only in the once-upon-a-time of fairy tales, but in the acute awareness of existence itself—the closest we can get to the first order experience of the human creature to the wonder and terror of its birthing reality. This essay considers both ancient myth and reflective imagination in the work of modern thinkers and poets such as Nietzsche, Freud, Dostoevsky, and Rilke, as well as contemporary writers within oral traditions such as the Lakota writer Leslie Marmon Silko and the Caribbean poet Derek Walcott whose cultural traditions and works draw on mythic themes and archaic consciousness.