Anatomy of Criticism

by Frye, Northrop

• ISBN13: 9780691069999
• ISBN10: 0691069999
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-25
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Striking out at the conception of criticism as restricted to mere opinion or ritual gesture, Northrop Frye wrote this magisterial work proceeding on the assumption that criticism is a structure of thought and knowledge in its own right. In four brilliant essays on historical, ethical, archetypical, and rhetorical criticism, employing examples of world literature from ancient times to the present, Frye reconceived literary criticism as a total history rather than a linear progression through time.Literature, Frye wrote, is "the place where our imaginations find the ideal that they try to pass on to belief and action, where they find the vision which is the source of both the dignity and the joy of life." And the critical study of literature provides a basic way "to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in."Harold Bloom contributes a fascinating and highly personal preface that examines Frye's mode of criticism and thought (as opposed to Frye's criticism itself) as being indispensable in the modern literary world.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Prefatory. Statements and Acknowledgments	xiii
Polemical Introduction	3	(338)
Historical Criticism: Theory of Modes
Fictional Modes: Introduction	33	(2)
Tragic Fictional Modes	35	(8)
Comic Fictional Modes	43	(9)
Thematic Modes	52	(19)
Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols
Introduction	71	(2)
Literal and Descriptive Phases: Symbol as Motif and as Sing	73	(9)
Formal Phase: Symbol as Image	82	(13)
Mythical Phase: Symbol as Archetype	95	(20)
Anagogic Phase: Symbol as Monad	115	(16)
Archetypal Criticism: Theory of Myths
Introduction	131	(10)
Theory of Archetypal Meaning (1): Apocalyptic Imagery	141	(6)
Theory of Archetypal Meaning (2): Demonic Imagery	147	(4)
Theory of Archetypal Meaning (3): Analogical Imagery	151	(7)
Theory of Mythos: Introduction	158	(5)
The Mythos of Spring: Comedy	163	(23)
The Mythos of Summer: Romance	186	(20)
The Mythos of Autumn: Tragedy	206	(17)
The Mythos of Winter: Irony and Satire	223	(20)
Rhetorical Criticism: Theory of Genres
Introduction	243	(8)
The Rhythm of Recurrence: Epos	251	(12)
The Rhythm of Continuity: Prose	263	(5)
The Rhythm of Decorum: Drama	268	(2)
The Rhythm of Association: Lyric	270	(12)
Specific Forms of Drama	282	(11)
Specific Thematic Forms (Lyric and Epos)	293	(10)
Specific Continuous Forms (Prose Fiction)	303	(12)
Specific Encyclopaedic Forms	315	(11)
The Rhetoric of Non-Literary Prose	326	(15)
Tentative Conclusion	341	(16)
Notes	357	(8)
Glossary	365	(4)
Index	369