Paisajes de la alquimia en Narnia y Tierra Media. Análisis de los arquetipos de la fantasía de J.R.R.Tolkien y C.S.Lewis

Abstract

Landscapes of alchemy in Narnia and Middle Earth. Analysis of the archetypes of the fantasy of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis

This work analyses the archetypical principles that are representative and frequent within the fantasy of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, whose adaptations to the big screen made a huge impact in the general audience and, in the case of The Lord of the Rings, had the critical acclaim after receiving a large number of awards from the Academy. Both factors lead us to explore the corners of the works of these authors that remained unapproached in the films, and due to that, we take them from the psychoanalytical theory of the collective unconscious and of the archetypes of Carl Gustav Jung. In this research, we inquire into the symbolism behind the alchemy, related to the transmission of knowledge through generations, and we find in the figure of the wizard and the component of magic paradigmatical patterns whose symbolism is identical or analogue. In accordance to these results, Jung’s assumptions describe this transgenerational process of transmission of values and knowledge, and the alchemist history shows how this transmission is done through a veiled code at an unconscious level.

Keywords: Archetype, Symbolism, Alchemy, Psychoanalysis, Fantasy literature.