Northrop Frye was a Canadian literary theorist whose influential work centered on the critical understanding of literature. He introduced a system of analysis based on archetypal patterns and mythological structures he believed pervade all literature. His approach offered a revolutionary perspective on literary study that fundamentally shaped generations of scholars. Frye sought to uncover a universal rhetoric shared across diverse genres and historical periods.
Frye's Anatomy of Criticism, a cornerstone of literary theory, explores the nature of literature through a systematic framework. This influential work delves into the principles of literary criticism, offering insights into genres, symbols, and the relationships between texts. As the twenty-second volume in the Collected Works of Northrop Frye series, it showcases Frye's significant contributions to the understanding of literature and its critical analysis, solidifying his legacy in the field.
..". twelve essays in which this visionary literary critic speaks specifically to the eternal act of creation, addressing the incessant need for literary revisioning." --Studies in ReligionThese essays, four of which are published here for the first time, reveal one of the most extraordinary minds of our time engaging a wide range of literary, cultural, and religious issues. Frye gave these addresses during the last decade of his life, and they reveal this distinguished critic speaking with wit and wisdom about the permanent forms of human civilization and engaging in the eternal act of creation.
In this outstanding collection of sixteen essays, the world-renowned critic and scholar discusses various works in the central tradition of English mythopoeic poetry, paying particular attention to the centrality of Romanticism.
Frye addresses what he sees as the four main approaches to criticism: the historical, the ethical, the archetypal and the theoretical. His text is considered a classic of modern literary criticism.
Offers fresh insights into ten of Shakespeare's most popular plays
An examination of the influence of the Bible on Western art and literature and on the Western creative imagination in general. Frye persuasively presents the Bible as a unique text distinct from all other epics and sacred writings. “No one has set forth so clearly, so subtly, or with such cogent energy as Frye the literary aspect of our biblical heritage” (New York Times Book Review). Indices.
"What good is the study of literature? Does it help us think more clearly, or feel more sensitively, or live a better life than we could without it? ... What difference does the study of literature make in our social or political or religious attitude? In my early days I thought very little about such questions, not because I had any of the answers, but because I assumed that anybody who asked them was naive. I think now that the simplest questions are not only the hardest to answer, but the most important to ask, so I'm going to raise them and try to suggest what my present answers are."Written in a relaxed, informal, and frequently humorous style, The Educated Imagination is an easy introduction to Northrop Frye's theories of literature and literary education.
"Any publication by Northrop Frye is an important literary event; this one is of the highest importance to Canadian literature." -- Globe and Mail Originally published by Anansi in 1971, The Bush Garden features Northrop Frye's timeless essays on Canadian literature and painting. In this cogent collection of essays written between 1943 and 1969, formidable literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye explores the Canadian imagination through the lens of the country's artistic output: prose, poetry, and paintings. In the collection, Frye offers insightful commentary on the works that shaped a "Canadian sensibility," and includes a comprehensive survey of the landscape of Canadian poetry throughout the 1950s, including astute criticism of the work of E. J. Pratt, Robert Service, Irving Layton, and many others. Written with clarity and precision, The Bush Garden is a significant cache of literary criticism that traces a pivotal moment in the country's cultural history, and the evolution of Frye's thinking at various stages of his career. These essays are evidence of Frye's brilliance, and cemented his reputation as Canada's -- and the world's -- foremost literary critic.
In this classic book, the resouces of an exceptional critic are brought to bear on questions of prime importance in modern life. Frye presents a brilliant array of ideas and observations on the methodology of our day and its central elements, alienation, and progress; the effects of anthologyon the structured society; characteristics commonly associated with the `modern'; antisocial attitudes in modern culture; the role of the arts in informing the contemporary imagination; and finally the way in which the creative arts are absorbed into society through education.
