Jonathan Gottschall and Carly Down, St. Lawrence University
Literary scholars and psychologists have long recognized striking similarities in the depiction of male heroes in the world's folk traditions. The best-known attempt to document and explain these similarities is Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces (1936). However, in contrast to the many determined efforts to generalize about heroes, scholars have expended virtually no effort generalizing about cross-cultural features of heroines. This paper, based on a quantitative content analysis of 1180 different characters from 658 tales and 49 diverse culture areas, presents the results of the first systematic attempt to identify and explain cross-cultural trends in the characterization of heroines. Analysis of data reveals salient trends of characterization across the sample in parameters associated with the heroine's age, levels of physical attractiveness, frequency of representation as the main character, marital status, mating preferences, motivation, level of activity, personality descriptors, propensity for physical heroism, and patterns of altruism.The goal of this presentation is not only to draw a composite sketch of some broad lineaments that are relatively constant in the heroine's thousand faces, but also to provide a model for a specific type of research program in literary universals. While there is, at present, a quiet resurgence of interest in the subject of literary universals (e.g., Hogan 1996, 1997, 2004; Gottschall 2003 forthcoming; Jobling 2001; Arleo 1997; contributors to Mueller 1993; Richardson 2000; Sugiyama 2001; Carroll 2001; Quasthoff 1996), the majority of literary scholars have, over the last several decades, viewed the very concept of universals with suspicion bordering on contempt. This attitude cannot be dismissed merely as an artifact of ideological bias. Rather, this suspicion is largely due to the fact that the most prominent research in the field has been rife with theoretical and methodological flaws and thus vulnerable to devastating skeptical critique. For instance, psychoanalysis served as map and legend for some of the twentieth century's most prominent universalist studies: the map that indicated where to look for universals, the legend that revealed how to interpret what was found. Thus the most widely known attempts to systematically define literary universals, including heroic universals, are heir to the shortcomings of psychoanalysis and have often been found guilty of implausible attempts to cram stories into Freudian or Jungian molds. In addition to theoretical weaknesses, previous attempts to define literary universals often lacked methodological rigor. Conclusions were not based on analyses of representative samples of texts but on highly impressionistic readings of handpicked texts, typically over representing circum-Mediterranean content (see Cook 1976; Jobling 2001).
The approach featured in this presentation represents an attempt to rectify the shortcomings of previous research in literary universals by applying theory and methods that have invigorated the search for, and interpretation of, universals in the human and social sciences. By applying standard social science methods of data acquisition and quantitative text analysis researchers can attempt to avoid (insofar as is possible) some of the problems of subjectivity, selection bias, and confirmation bias embodied in previous attempts. By taking cognitive and evolutionary theory as map and legend for this exploration, researchers can identify universals that prove more durable and reliable than those identified in the past.[J.G.]