The archaic and the contemporary in sense8: archetypal representations of the diversity

Abstract

In sense8 the representation of the diversity is one of the most important elements in the imaginary shared with the audience. This issue stimulates discussions about stereotypes and stigmas in the psychological ad sociological composition of characters in fictional narratives and contemporary society. From the communicational perspective, a relevant issue that emerges from the sense8 popularity is to identify what are the symbolic elements that the narrative uses in the construction of a story about diversity, stereotypes, and stigmas. This paper seeks to answer this question based on the general theory of the imaginary (Durand). One of the hypothesis worked here is that the cultural productions and the society are permanently oriented (or disoriented) by founding myths. The goal of this investigation is identify clues from mythological narratives in sense8 and understand how these evidences are related with themes and characters in the construction of the meanings in the narrative. The method used is myth criticism (Durand) and the results show how the most redundant symbolical elements in sense8 first season establish archetypal relations with the Greek myths of Dionysus and Androgyny.