The Double Vision: Language and Meaning in Religion

by Northrop Frye

The publication in 1982 of Northrop Frye's The Great The Bible and Literature was a literary event of major significance. Frye took what he called 'a fresh and firsthand look' at the Bible and analysed it as a literary critic, exploring its relation to Western literature and its impact on the creative imagination. Through an examination of such key aspects of language as myth, metaphor, and rhetoric he conveyed to the reader the results of his own encounter with the Bible and his appreciation of its unified structure of narrative and imagery. Shortly before his death in January 1991, Frye characterized The Double Vision as 'something of a shorter and more accessible version' of The Great Code and its sequel, Words with Power. In simpler context and briefer compass, it elucidates and expands on the ideas and concepts introduced in those books. The 'double vision' of the title is a phrase borrowed from William Blake indicating that mere simple sense perception is not enough for reliable interpretation of the meaning of the world. In Frye's 'the conscious subject is not really perceiving until it recognizes itself as part of what it perceives.' In four very readable, engaging chapters, Frye contrasts the natural or physical vision of the world with the inward, spiritual one as each relates to language, space, time, history, and the concept of God. Throughout, he reiterates that the true literal sense of the Bible is metaphorical and that this conception of a metaphorical literal sense is not new, or even modern. He emphasizes the fact that the literary language of the Bible is not intended, like literature itself, simply to suspend judgement, but to convey a vision of spiritual life that contineus to transform and expand our own. Its myths become, as purely literary myths cannot, myths to live by. Its metaphors become, as purely literary metaphors cannot, metaphors to live in. The Double Vision originated in lectures delivered at Emmanuel College in the University of Toronto, the texts of which were revised and augmented. It will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers alike who enjoyed Frye's earlier works or who are interested in the Bible, literature, literary theory and criticism, and religion.

Genres: Religion, Criticism, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Philosophy

88 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1991

About the author

Born in Quebec but raised in New Brunswick, Frye studied at the University of Toronto and Victoria University. He was ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Canada and studied at Oxford before returning to UofT.

His first book, Fearful Symmetry, was published in 1947 to international acclaim. Until then, the prophetic poetry of William Blake had long been poorly understood, considered by some to be delusional ramblings. Frye found in it a system of metaphor derived from Paradise Lost and the Bible. His study of Blake's poetry was a major contribution. Moreover, Frye outlined an innovative manner of studying literature that was to deeply influence the study of literature in general. He was a major influence on, among others, Harold Bloom and Margaret Atwood.

In 1974-1975 Frye was the Norton professor at Harvard University.

Frye married Helen Kemp, an educator, editor and artist, in 1937. She died in Australia while accompanying Frye on a lecture tour. Two years after her death in 1986 he married Elizabeth Brown. He died in 1991 and was interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario. The Northrop Frye Centre at Victoria College at the University of Toronto was named in his honour.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop...

Reviews

[Margaret Virany · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one needs me to assert that Northrop Frye was a giant on the scale of Aristotle or William Blake but what I can add is that I felt extraordinarily loved as a student in his English classes. This shy, ordinary-looking man knew he had genius. He studied literature, the Bible, theology and education to prepare himself for a calling he privately compared to that of an Old Testament prophet. Moments of extreme lucidity, one when he read Blake's poetry and another when he sat in a chair outside the fitting room of a dress shop while his wife tried on a new outfit, gave him the key to a long-forgotten mythical and metaphorical interpretation of these works that was essential.When I attended his lectures on topics that other professors make humdrum, I felt impelled to get down every word and worry about understanding it later. If you didn't keep the train of thought, you were lost for good. He was not talking about his own theories; he was opening our minds, making us think and challenging us to be open to forming a new world view. As an author and teacher, he cared about people and his passion was to write simply so that everyone could understand his ideas and learn how to read the Bible the way it was written. To psychoanalyze my own problems arising from an overly religious Methodist upbringing similar to Frye's, I turned to his books after graduation. Reading and re-reading Fearful Symmetry, the Great Code, an Anatomy of Criticism and Words with Power freed me from my own problems not just by the impact of his over-all theory and structure but also by his quotable quotes. His most populist, shortest books are The Educated Imagination, which all first-year students at Victoria College, University of Toronto (where Frye taught) read, and The Double Vision, which is the last book Frye wrote. It is four brief chapters of lectures he gave to alumni of Emmanuel College (which he attended.) The community of Frygean scholars is active in 72 countries of the world and https://macblog.mcmaster.ca/fryeblog/is their online hub. In my opinion, his ideas are inspiring to every discussion about the past or the future going on in the world today.

[Prisoner 071053 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read enough Frye by now to feel that I understood little islands of this book, but I'm afraid the greater pattern was more than a bit lost on my ignorance.

[Timothy Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Human beings are concerned beings, and it seems to me that there are two kinds of concern: primary and secondary. Primary concerns are such things as food, sex, property, and freedom of movement: concerns that we share with animals on a physical level. Secondary concerns include our political, religious, and other ideological loyalties. All through history ideological concerns have taken precedence over primary ones. We want to live and love, but we go to war; we want freedom, but depend on the exploiting of other peoples, of the natural environment, even of ourselves. In the twentieth century, with a pollution that threatens the supply of air to breathe and water to drink, it is obvious that we cannot afford the supremacy of ideological concerns any more. The need to eat, love, own property, and move about freely must come first, and such needs require peace, good will, and a caring and responsible attitude to nature. A continuing of ideological conflict, a reckless exploiting of the environment, a persistence in believing, with Mao Tse-Tung, that power comes out of the barrel of a gun, would mean, quite simply, that the human race cannot be long for this world."

[Anna Sangrey Roussel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read with a few approaches to viewing fiction, and theology, through multiple layers. Appreciated reading this conclusion of Frye's body of work.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frye is a singular and compelling theorist. He is a bit hard to follow, but that's partly just a virtue of being unique.

Like, he's not a post-structuralist, post-colonialist, neo-marxist, he's not concerned with "reader response", he's neither a historian nor a philosopher disguised as a critic...so, what is he?

In a way I think this is why he's still assigned in college, just because his stuff is useful for jarring English majors out of their complacency.

Beyond that, though, I hardly hear about him. In addition to his oblique style of writing, he also owes obscurity to the fact that his masterworks are huge and cumbersome. Plus I think you need to have a fairly strong knowledge of the Western canon before you can attack them.

The other thing is that Frye was a Protestant minister, which nowadays makes you think that he must have been an evangelist...not the case.

The point is: we're lucky to have this little volume of lectures. Not even 90 pages! Frye actually delivered these speeches, hence he had to be much, much more concise than normal. They're easier to engage with, while still being challenging and fun. Frye goes all over the place (time, nature, metaphor, religion, etc.) but he's just so erudite and un-ironically funny that you want to keep up with him. What emerges is a beautiful tapestry of ideas that I might even be able to grasp one day!