Northrop Frye

A defense of criticism that examines the theories, principles, approaches, and techniques involved in the study of literature.

Four Essays

Anatomy of Criticism

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.

The Bible and Literature

The Great Code

Professor Northrop Frye

Explores the value and uses of literature in our time. Dr. Frye offers ideas for the teaching of literature at lower school levels, designed both to promote an early interest and to lead the student to the knowledge and experience found in the study of literature.

The Educated Imagination

Distinguished by its range of reference, elegance of expression, comprehensiveness of coverage, coherence of argument, and sympathy to its subject, Fearful Symmetry is recognized as a landmark of Blake criticism.

A Study of William Blake

Northrop Frye's Fearful Symmetry

studies in poetic mythology

Fables of identity

Offers fresh insights into ten of Shakespeare's most popular plays, relating each of these works to others and discussing many of the central elements of Shakespearean drama

Northrop Frye on Shakespeare

The Educated Imagination (Cbc Massey Lectures Series)

"Originally published by Anansi in 1971, this attractive new edition of Frye's timeless essays on literature and painting features an introduction by Canadian literature scholar Linda Hutcheon."

Essays on the Canadian Imagination

The Bush Garden

The Modern Century

Addressed to educators and general readers -- the "consumers of literature" from all walks of life -- this important new book explores the value and uses of literature in our time. Dr. Frye offers, in addition, challenging and stimulating ideas for the teaching of literature at lower school levels, designed both to promote an early interest and to lead the student to the knowledge and kaleidoscopic experience found in the study of literature. Dr. Frye's proposals for the teaching of literature include an early emphasis on poetry, the "central and original literary form," intensive study of the Bible, as literature, and the Greek and Latin classics, as these embody all the great enduring themes of western man, and study of the great literary forms: tragedy and comedy, romance and irony.

In a collection of recent writings, Frye explores the contexts of literature, the importance and forms of mythology, and the great myth-making poets

Essays on Literature, Myth, and Society

Spiritus Mundi

Reassesses the tradition and individual works of Western romance, from ancient Greece to the present, as constituting an imaginative universe in which man, moving between the idyllic and demonic, functions as a scriptural hero.

A Study of the Structure of Romance

The Secular Scripture

In the Alexander Lectures for 1965-66 at the University of Toronto, Dr. Frye describes the basis of the tragic vision as "being in time," in which death as "the essential event that gives shape and form to life ... defines the individual, and marks him off from the continuity of life that flows indefinitely between the past and the future." In Dr. Frye's view, three general types can be distinguished in Shakespearean tragedy, the tragedy of order, the tragedy of passion, and the tragedy of isolation, in all of which a pattern of "being in time" shapes the action. In the first type, of which Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet are examples, a strong ruler is killed, replaced by a rebel-figure, and avenged by a nemesis-figure; in the second, represented by Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, and Troilus and Cressida, authority is split and the hero is destroyed by a conflict between social and personal loyalties; and in the third, Othello, King Lear, and Timon of Athens, the central figure is cut off from his world, largely as a result of his failure to comprehend the dynamics of that world. What all these plays show us, Dr. Frye maintains, is "the impact of heroic energy on the human situation" with the result that the "heroic is normally destroyed ... and the human situation goes on surviving." Fools of Time will be welcomed not only by many scholars who are familiar with Dr. Frye's keen critical insight but also by undergraduates, graduates, high-school and university teachers who have long valued his work as a means toward a firmer grasp and deeper understanding of English literature.

Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy

Fools of Time

In the third published volume of Canadian literary critic Frye's (1912-91) 77 holograph notebooks, the material is mostly from the 1970s, when he was writing the first of his books on the Bible, The Great Code. However, it begins with Notebook Three from the late 1940s in which he writes primarily on religious themes. It concludes with Notebook 23 from the middle 1980s, written between his first and second book on the Bible; and one from the 1960s devoted largely to his reading of Dante's Purgatorio and the first ten cantos of the Paradiso. Altogether the volume contains 11 notebooks, three sets of typed notes, and a transcription of 24 lectures on The Mythological Framework of Western Culture in 1981-82. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Northrop Frye's Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts

Presented informally, The Return of Eden is filled with the vast learning and demonstrates the imaginative magnitude we have come to expect of this distinguished critic: the brilliant argument and the pleasantly witty presentation will inform and delight.

Five Essays on Milton's Epics

The Return of Eden

David Cayley

Northrop Frye discusses with David Cayley his life as a teacher and scholar, focusing on the university as "the engine room of society." This fascinating book concludes with Frye's thoughts on religion and his writings on the Bible.

Northrop Frye in Conversation

John Emory Jordan

James Venable Logan

A Collection of Essays

Some British Romantics

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 anthology on 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.

This collection of writings brings together Northrop Frye's large body of work on Shakespeare and other Renaissance writers (with the exception of Milton, who is featured in other volumes), and includes major articles, introductions, public lectures, and four previously published books. Spanning forty years of Frye's career as a university professor and literary critic, these insightful analyses not only reveal the author's formidable intellect but also offer the reader a transformative experience of creative imagination. With extensive annotation and an in-depth critical introduction, the volume demonstrates Frye's wide-ranging knowledge of Renaissance culture and its pivotal significance in his work, his impact on Renaissance criticism and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and his continuing importance as a literary theorist. Troni V. Grande is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Regina. Garry Sherbert is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Regina.

Northrop Frye

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