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Curated category

Literary archetypes

  • Prince HamletHamlet stands in the Elsinore churchyard holding the skull of Yorick, a jester he once knew. The dead man has been buried for twenty-three years, yet Hamlet…
  • SupermanIn January 1933, a young writer named Jerry Siegel published a short story titled The Reign of the Superman in his amateur science fiction magazine.
  • Robin HoodThe Lincoln Cathedral Manuscript, dating from approximately 1420, contains the earliest surviving reference to Robin Hood with the line "Robyn hode in…
  • Don QuixoteMiguel de Cervantes sold the rights to his novel El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha in July 1604. The publisher Francisco de Robles received a…
  • John FalstaffIn 1417, a historical knight named John Oldcastle died as a martyr for his religious beliefs. Shakespeare originally intended to name his comic character…
  • ShylockIn the opening lines of The Merchant of Venice, a Venetian Jewish moneylender named Shylock stands alone on stage. His name does not sound like a traditional…
  • Jungian archetypesCarl Jung stood before the Burghölzli clinic in Zurich during 1909, a moment that marked his transition from individual analysis to universal theory.