_,Northrop Frye was born in Canada in 1912 and studied atTo 0 University and Merton College, Oxford, moving into the field literature after beginning as a student of theology. His first majo ‘publication was Fearful Symmetry : a study of William Blake (1% ‘But itwas the Anatomy of Criticism (1957) that firmly established _ a8 one of the most brilliant, original and influential of twentiet ‘Century critics. He has been professor at the University of Toro ‘and visiting Professor at several other North American Universi Like many modern critics from |.[Link] onwards, he | thoroughly against the confusion and contradictions of most & I Miterary criticism, and believed that it should acquire something of Z ‘Methodical discipline and coherence of the sciences. This, in his _ canonly be attained by assuming a total coherence in criticism bas / ‘on a hypothesis about literature itself. For him this is the recurre . of certain “aichetypes'. As a preacher and practitioner of Archi > Criticism, he argued that we must teach literature not as a coll _ of autonomous works but as an order of words. eS ee __ Archetypal Criticism is based on the anthropological we S Frazer and the Psychologist C.G,Jung, In crita set Of universal, primi ande whose effective embodiment aliterary y response from the reader. Practitioners of arc| tend to emphasize the occurrence of mythical patters rature,-on the assumption that myths are closer to the eleme s than the artful manipulations of sophisticated writers. For them literature is simply identified with myth and myth is used so broadly that it includes any theme and story we can think about. As a critic, Frye rejected the Jungian theory of the Collective Unconscious and 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 incorporate the alien and the indifferent world of nature into persisting archetypal forms that serve to satisfy enduring human desires and needs. According tohim, the literary fictions are the unilateral creations of humanity and exist “in its own universe containing life and reality in a system of verbal relationships”. He persuasively argued for the dependence of mythic narrative structure on certain primitive religious rituals. Frye has been criticised by many thinkers. Wimsatt has censured Frye for his reliance on the quest myth as the source of all literary genres; “such a coherent, cyclic and encyclopedic system, such a monomyth, cannot be shown ever to have evolved actually, either from or with ritual, anywhere in the world”. According to Colin Falck, “The drawback in Frye's approach is that it is standpointless and unhistorical rather than based in a present-day creative Sensibility, and that it can therefore offer us little more than an academic exercise in literary taxonomy. Nothing is changed, from this point of view, if we decide to regard Frye's categorizing as “ategorizing of reading-procedures rather than as a categorizing of Modes and genres". Frye argued that all evaluative critici to distortion by personal prejudice and passing fa: ‘taste and is therefore fraudulent. This attitude als /many. ae that it will g ‘coherence. A critic can find universal meanings in a p in the framework of structural analysis and the assumption sriticism makes complete sense, the new method can get on both | | inductively and deductively. The inductive method shows that the | | private symbols of poets transcend the temporal and spatial limits. In ‘this manner a particular image assumes a universal and archetypal status. The central concern of criticism is to see literature as a Tepetition and manifestation of certain archetypes In the deductive ‘method, it can be derived that myth is of crucial importance and is the “central informing power that gives archetypal significance to the ritual and archetypal narrative to the oracle. Myth has four phases “Corresponding to literary forms. They are the archetype of romance ¥ ‘most dithyrambic and rhapsodic poetry, the archetype of ‘comedy, pastoral and idyll, the archetype of tragedy an elegy, and the archetype of satire. The central myth of literature is the quest- k The principle of archetypes is applicable to the study of genres s The structure of genres is archetypal. The literary critic must | ‘study the scriptures which is a realization of the Quest Myth in |. After understanding their structure, he can come down to of genres. Criticism demystifies literature and shows the patterns latent in it. The tragic and comic visions show this ‘They have different modes of presentation of the sameendent discipline. Other philosophy are frequently relied upon, © nucleus of its own or well-defined area of Study, indulge in unscientific evaluative commentaries pseudo-prepositions of the principles by which one cand significant statement froma meaningless one are not clearly: For Frye, as we gather from his other writings, all evaluative ¢ is Subject to distortion by personal prejudice and passing literary taste and is therefore fraudulent. From criticism coordinating principle which sees the phenomena it deals with part of a whole is missing from criticism. The practice of ‘textual explication deals with imagined situations alone. 3. Alternative critical approach as suggested by Frye Frye holds that the present pathetic state of criticism calls fo radical change. We have to establish a central expanding pattern: systematic comprehension in criticism so that it will get a to i coherence. We have to recognize and get rid of sentimental meaningless criticism which does not help us build up @ systematic” structure of knowledge. This alternative approach total coherence. Since the object of criticism (i.e., litera inexhaustible, a critic can find universal meanings in a poem, wh the poet intended it or not. Within the framework provided by axiomatic points of structural analysis (the preliminary t criticism) and the assumption that criticism makes complete sen the new method can get on both inductively and deductively: — 4. Inductive method of Frye [Induction is the logical process of moving from the, the general, and as such is not demonstrative. Thatis,t about some things of a certain kind, a conclusion, some or all the’remaining things of the kind. E.g Oey AIG black -- therefore all the crows,tions, and thus we can see literature as spread Out in space from some unseen centre. Frye argues that the [Deduction is the logical process by which a conclusion is ‘Gerived from one or more premises, following certain general rules. & ‘conclusion thus obtained must be true if the premises are true. To ‘Geny the conclusion while keeping the premises would lead to a ‘Contradiction. Given ‘All men are mortal and Socrates is a man’, we ‘an deduce ‘Socrates is mortal’ because it would be contradictory to ‘deny it] The ‘Organizing principle of all arts is recurrence which is called “thythm’ when it is temporal and ‘pattern’ when it is Spatial. Literature is intermediate between the two, Words form rhythm at one boundary and pattern at the other, Rhythm in literature is the Narrative and Pattern the meaning. Rhythm is deeply founded on the natural cycle. ___ Artistic objects grow out of a Profound synchronization between an _ ofganism and the rhythm of the environment. In human life, ritual isa _ voluntary effort to recapture a lost rapport with the natural cycle. The ‘deliberate expression of a will to synchronize human and natural Produces the rituals, The origin of Narrative can be found in Itis a temporal sequence of acts in which the conscious is latent. All the important recurrences in nature and the of 9 from birth to death get rituals attached to them, are oracular in origin. They derive from and @cquire narrative and are @ {otal structure of significanceDifferent phases of the myth 4 _ According to Frye myth is of crucial importance and it has four phases corresponding to literary forms, They are 1) the dawn, spring and birth phase; the myth of the emergence of the hero and the defeat of the evil forces; the archetype of romance. and: most dithyrambic and rhapsodic poetry. 2) the zenith, summer and marriage phase; myths of apotheosis, sacred marriage and entering into the Paradise: the archetype of comedy, pastoral and idyll. 3) the sunset, autumn and death phase; myths of the dying god, violent death and sacrifice; the archetype of tragedy an elegy 4) the darkness, winter and dissolution phase; myths of triumph of these powers, of floods and return of chaos, etc.,; the archetype of satire. 7. Quest Myth According to Frye, the central myth of literature is the quest- myth. The quest of the hero assimilates oracular and random verbal structures. Both ritual and epiphany tend to become encyclopedic. This tendency is realized in the body of myth which constitutes the sacred scriptures of religions. The quest-myth is a pattern of meaning also. [Link] question of genres Frye holds that the principle of archetypes is applicable to the study of genres as well. For example, consider the case of drama. Drama emerged in England through the phases related to church exactly the way it came from Greek religion centuries before. Thus’ the structure becomes archetypal. An archetype leads us to: 3 question of what sort of total form can criticism see in literature. — [Link] course of criticism is Frye is of the view that the literary critic mus! iptures which is a realization of the Quest ‘Myth in re f he come: ision the human world is a Community, oF the, pe cirsenn There are archetypes of i nposium, communion, order, friendship, love, marriage of ayn tconsummation. In the tragic vision, the Auman Vision weg oe vari or anarchy. Images of isolated man, bullying Giant, betrayed hero, harlot, witch predomonate. All divine or heroic munities follow the human pattern. In the comic vision the animal world is a community of domesticated animals and ‘abounds jg pastoral images. Inthe tragic vision, the animal world is one of beasts and birds of prey. In the comic vision, the vegetable worl isa Qarden, a tree of life, etc. There are arcadian images. In the ‘tragic vision, itis a sinister forest. In the comic vision, the mineral worldisa ‘city or building or temple marked by geometrical images. In the tragic wision, it is seen in terms of deserts, rocks and ruins. In the comic vision, the unformed world is a river. In the tragic vision, itis usually the sea--the flood myth. A good example of the comic vision is WB Yeats's ‘Sailing to Byzantium’--it has the city, the tree, the bird, | the community of sages, the geometrical gyre and detachment from the cyclical world. : Essays 1. Northop Frye's account of the architypes of literature or is an archit P°? How does arc jeg, formtin i : hetypal m account for t ‘otal formiin literature? 'ypal criticism accol _ Answer : Textual Topic 2, 3, 4 5,6, 7 theory Of ‘recurrence of Certain arche ree in modern critical thoug|