Northrope Frye : Thinking activity

Northrope Frye

Herman Northrop Frye CC FRSC (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century.

Frye gained international fame with his first book, Fearful Symmetry (1947), which led to the reinterpretation of the poetry of William Blake. His lasting reputation rests principally on the theory of literary criticism that he developed in Anatomy of Criticism (1957), one of the most important works of literary theory published in the twentieth century. The American critic Harold Bloom commented at the time of its publication that Anatomy established Frye as "the foremost living student of Western literature." Frye's contributions to cultural and social criticism spanned a long career during which he earned widespread recognition and received many honours.

Thinking activity

1. What is archetypal criticism ? What does the archetypal critic do ?

In literary criticism the term archetype denotes recurrent narration  design. patterns of action , character- types , themes and images which are identifiable in a wide variety of work of literature as well as in myths ,dreams and even social rituals. Critic shares the psyche archetypes expressed by the author such recurrent items are held to be the results of elemental and universal forms or patterns in the human psyche , whose effective embodiment in a literary work evokes a profound response from the attentive reader.

2.what is frye trying to prove by giving an analogy of ' physics to nature '  and ' criticism to literature ' ?

Physics is organized body of knowledge about nature and if student learning physics , not that he is learning nature.the criticism  of literature is all that can be directly taught , literature is not a ' pure ' or ' exact science ' so in both term learning  and teaching matters become important.as physics is not nature ,in same manner criticism is not literature , but it something more than it.

3. show your views of criticism as an organized body of knowledge , mention relation of literature with history and philosophy ?

The foreground of criticism is the input of literature on the reader. Knowledge grows always progressively by use of history , learn form it and growing and developing . Literature connect with both history and philosophy , both are most important because it becomes worthy after the use of past and logic , history and philosophy.

4.Briefly explain inductive method with illustration of Shakespeare's  Hamlet's gravedigger ' s scene.

Inductive  method move from scientific to general  . We can say that from that scene there is many illustration derived , like Yorick  soliloquy , declaration of Love, Hamlet's struggle with Leartes , corruption , blind superstition , loses emotion and at the end universal truth that all human being are moral. so this illustration from that scene , from scientific to general. 

5.Briefly explain deductive method with reference to an analogy  to music, painting, rhythm and pattern. Give examples of the outcome of deductive method ?

Deductive method moves from general to scientific . some art move in time , like music, and painting. Literature seemed  to be intermediate between music and painting , It's words from rhythms with approach a musical sequence of sounds at one of its boundaries , and form patterns which approach the hieroglyphics or pictorial image at the other. Everything in nature that we think  of as having some analogy with works of art. Deductive method derived thinking process and reasoning like from general to scientific.