A study of the great mother archetype in an industrially transformed world in selected stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, Sherwood Anderson, and Eudora Welty

According to Carl Gustav Jung's theory, the collective unconscious is not based on individual experience, but every person's experience is stored side by side, which each person acquires through genetics as well as being recalled by individuals when necessary. People share the same morals, ethics, and sense of justice regardless of their culture. The unconscious contains the earliest shapes, symbols, and images in relation to the shared values. He uses human imagery and symbols to understand the collective unconscious, and these are called archetypes, which may surface in dreams, art, and literature. One of these beginning imprints is The Great Mother archetype suggested and developed by Erich Neumann following Carl Gustav Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. Human minds established a parallel between the earth's life-giving qualities and the female body, attributing both with sacredness. Furthermore, this sacred female figure owns different faces which contribute to the stages in a woman's life. This study aims to analyse selected stories of three chronologically consecutive authors, Sarah Orne Jewett, Sherwood Anderson, and Eudora Welty, in terms of changing society/order under the influence of industrialisation and urbanisation and how this change is reflected through the mother archetype. In the stories of these three authors, the mother archetype will be examined in two dimensions: as Mother Nature and as the human representatives of the Great Mother. Female characters from different generations and their connections to the archetype will therefore help illuminate this transformation. Key Words: Collective Unconscious, Mother Archetype, Great Mother, Mother Goddess, Industrialisation, Urbanisation