Understanding Locke & Key: A Semiotic and Intertextual study of the Collective Unconscious and some of its Archetypes in Locke & Key

Sammanfattning: This thesis’ focus will be on the comic book series Locke & Key in a semiotic and an intertextual reading through a psychoanalytical framework. The comic series is described as a “psychological horror” and a main theme running across the six volumes is good versus evil, and a lot of the narrative is helped by magical keys. The keys have specific uses and help both sides gain more power. The psychoanalytical focus that will be implemented is the Collective unconscious and some of its archetypes, as presented by Carl Jung, resulting in two main questions How does the theory of the Collective Unconscious and its archetypes affect the understanding of Locke & Key’s narrative? and How do Locke & Key’s images affect this reading of the work?. The theory presents a wide array of archetypes detectable in the comic, recurring symbols and imagery, like The House, The Mother, The Child, Animus/Anima and the Shadow archetypes. Through these archetypes a deeper understanding of the empirical work takes place and a new understanding of the story as an allegory for trauma opens to the reader.