What is Northrop Frye known for?

Northrop Frye, in full Herman Northrop Frye, (born July 14, 1912, Sherbrooke, Que., Can. —died Jan. 23, 1991, Toronto, Ont.), Canadian educator and literary critic who wrote much on Canadian literature and culture and became best known as one of the most important literary theorists of the 20th century.

What are the four phases of the myth according to Northrop Frye?

From Northrop Frye, “The Archetypes of Literature” (1951) 1. The dawn, spring and birth phase. Myths of the birth of the hero, of revival and resurrection, of creation and (because the four phases are a cycle) of the defeat of the powers of darkness, winter and death.

What is myth according to Northrop Frye?

“Myths,” Frye says, “are the [sacred] stories that tell a society what it is important for [us] to know.” A unified mythology can be a powerful instrument of social authority. What Frye calls a civilization’s canon of “concerned knowledge,” transmitting a heritage of shared allusion, creates a cultural history.

What according to Frye is the central activity of criticism?

The central activity of criticism, which is the understanding of literature, is essentially one of establishing a context for the works of literature being studied. This kind of criticism is essentially the defense of those aspects of civilization loosely described as freedom of speech and freedom of thought.

How does Frye classify myth?

Mythos is the Greek word (Aristotle’s favored word) for “story” or “plot.” Frye divides stories into four categories or parts of the Cycle of Mythoi: comedy (the mythos of spring), romance (the mythos of summer), tragedy (the mythos of autumn), and irony/satire (the mythos of winter).

What according to Northrop Frye is the function of criticism at present time?

Criticism for Frye, then, is not a task of evaluation — that is, of rejecting or accepting a literary work — but rather simply of recognizing it for what it is and understanding it in relation to other works within the ‘order of words’ (Cotrupi 4).

What is archetype According to Frye?

Northrop Frye working in the field of literature defined an archetype as a symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary experience as a whole.

What is the most common archetype?

Here’s a list of some of the most commonly found archetypes in literature.

• The Hero. Summary: The hero is always the protagonist (though the protagonist is not always a hero).
• The Mentor. Summary: The mentor is a common archetype in literature.
• The Everyman.
• The Innocent.
• The Villain.

What is the lover archetype?

The Lover brand archetype is about creating relationships and evoking emotions. Lovers are always looking for ways to make others feel special and to meet their needs. More than anything, the Lover archetype wants to achieve intimacy through close relationships, and create a special feeling in others.

What is Northrop Frye contribution to the archetypal criticism?

It was not until the work of the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye that archetypal criticism was theorized in purely literary terms. The major work of Frye’s to deal with archetypes is Anatomy of Criticism but his essay “The Archetypes of Literature” is a precursor to the book.

What was Northrop Frye’s major work on archetypes?

The major work of Frye’s to deal with archetypes is Anatomy of Criticism but his essay The Archetypes of Literature is a precursor to the book. Frye’s thesis in “The Archetypes of Literature” remains largely unchanged in Anatomy of Criticism.

Where did Northrop Frye go to high school?

NORTHROP FRYE: THE ARCHETYPES OF LITERATURE. Northrop Frye was born in Canada in 1921 and studied at Toronto University and Merton College, Oxford University. Initially he was a student of theology and then he switched over to literature.

When did Northrop Frye write anatomy of criticism?

In his remarkable and influential book Anatomy of Criticism (1957), N. Frye developed the archetypal approach into a radical and comprehensive revision of traditional grounds both in the theory of literature and the practice of literary criticism.

What did Northrop Frye mean by ” self contained literary universe “?

Frye proposed that the totality of literary works constitute a “self-contained literary universe” which has been created over the ages by the human imagination so as to assimilate the alien and indifferent world of nature into archetypal forms that serve to satisfy enduring human desires and needs.