From Cliché to Archetype

McLuhan mines the greats of modern literature, such as Yeats, Eliot and Pound, and points the way to richer understanding of their work. Discussion ranges over conventional topics of literary analysis, though never in conventional fashion, because McLuhan deliberately stakes his turf in a manner that draws technology and culture together. As a result, the key terms clich and archetype are not confined to language but are shown to have counterparts in the non-linguistic world.