Maud Bodkin

Amy Maud Bodkin (1875 in Chelmsford, Essex – 1967 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire) was an English classical scholar, writer on mythology, and literary critic. She is best known for her 1934 book Archetypal Patterns in Poetry: Psychological Studies of Imagination (London: Oxford University Press). It is generally taken to be a major work in applying the theories of Carl Jung to literature. Bodkin's other main works are The Quest for Salvation in an Ancient and a Modern Play (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1941) and Studies of Type-Images in Poetry, Religion and Philosophy (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1951). She lectured at Homerton College, Cambridge from 1902 to 1914.

In Archetypal Patterns in Poetry, Bodkin applies Jung's theory of the collective unconscious to poetry, discovering a deep-seated primitive meaning behind recurring poetic images, symbols, and situations. She tried, as Boswell (1936: 553) quotes, "to bring psychological analysis and reflection to bear upon the imaginative experience communicated by great poetry, and to examine those forms or patterns in which the universal forces of our nature there find objectification." Among the forms or archetypal patterns Bodkin presented, according to Boswell, may be included: the “Oedipus complex," the "rebirth archetype," the "archetype of Heaven and Hell," and "images of the Devil, the Hero, and God" (Boswell 1936: 553). Boswell goes on to write that Bodkin's "analyses and presentation are excellent; but the explanations, where any are attempted, seem inadequate to account for some very significant facts which the analyses have brought out" (Boswell 1936: 553).

On the other hand, Willcock (1936: 92) states that "the final impression left by Bodkin's book is one of unusual sensitiveness in reading and sincerity in recording experience." In addition, "Bodkin's pursuit of primordial symbols serves her determination to show, at least from one angle of approach, what poetry is and how it works. She holds herself back from slipping down the easy slope of paraphrase and prose meanings; neither does she drift into allegories and typifiyings" (Willcock 1936: 91).

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