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Myth and Metaphor: Selected Essays, 1974-1988
This collection of twenty-four of Northrop Frye's essays, nine of which have never been published and several of which have appeared only in obscure sources, focuses on the fundamental themes that have dominated Frye's career and made him one of the world's most influential critics.
386 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1990
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About the author
Northrop Frye
210 books306 followersBorn 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 5, 2022
"Myth and Metaphor" which is a selection of essays and public lectures published during the last years of Northrop Frye's life disappoints the reader. The various pieces as edited and arranged by Robert Denham show Frye being disgruntled with Jacques Derrida and his various disciples in the postmodernist camp but fails to attack them directly as he discusses primarily myth and metaphor.
The reader expects Frye to be opposed to postmodernism because of his lifelong attack on determinisms (Marxist, Freudian, Feminist, etc.) in criticism which his view are based on neither on literary structures nor concepts. Postmodernism being based on Jacques Derrida's philosophical reflection on linguistics is essentially just another non-literary methodology that has intruded in the practice of analyzing literature. (Frye's own system presented in his "Anatomy of Criticism" is essentially an enhanced version of Aristotle's "Poetics" and thus profoundly literary.) Frye however does not make it clear what he dislikes about postmodernism. He simply makes multiple hostile references to Derrida.
Frye considers a myth to be a story that society feels its members to know. For Frye the two most important myths in our civilization are those of man's fall after eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and Christ's resurrection. The obviously problem with postmodernism is that it proposes no myths and seeks only to subvert those of our liberal bourgeois society.
Frye is interested in metaphor because it is a common literary device and because "God is a socially postulated metaphor." Unfortunately by focussing heavily on metaphors Frye wanders first into semiotics (the since of the "signifier and the "signified") and then into postmodern deconstruction. He unfortunately validates the postmodern endeavour in literary criticism rather than elucidating its weaknesses.
In "The Great Code" Frye using Vico's historical model divides literature into three phases in a recurring cycle: (1) divine era - mythic literature:(2) heroic era - romantic literature; and (3) human era - factual or logical era. Under this scheme, one would expect Frye to classify post-modern literature as a late or decadent phenomenon of in the human-factual era. As such it would seem to announce the end of the cycle ("ricorso" in Vico's terms) and a return to the divine- mythic era. The fact that Frye refrains from doing so is difficult to explain.
The two best essays in the collection are on Thomas More's "Utopia" and Baldassare Castiglione's "Book of the Courtier" neither of which address the prime issues of the collection myth and metaphor. In this two essays he lucidly explains how the world view (weltanschauung) of the Renaissance differed from ours and what the particularly visions of the two authors were. It is regrettable that his various pieces on myth and metaphor are not nearly as good.
"Myth and Metaphor" is only for those who have already read Frye's major works and wish to work their way through his entire opus. We still need an Aristotelian to properly critique Derrida and his postmodernist followers.
The reader expects Frye to be opposed to postmodernism because of his lifelong attack on determinisms (Marxist, Freudian, Feminist, etc.) in criticism which his view are based on neither on literary structures nor concepts. Postmodernism being based on Jacques Derrida's philosophical reflection on linguistics is essentially just another non-literary methodology that has intruded in the practice of analyzing literature. (Frye's own system presented in his "Anatomy of Criticism" is essentially an enhanced version of Aristotle's "Poetics" and thus profoundly literary.) Frye however does not make it clear what he dislikes about postmodernism. He simply makes multiple hostile references to Derrida.
Frye considers a myth to be a story that society feels its members to know. For Frye the two most important myths in our civilization are those of man's fall after eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and Christ's resurrection. The obviously problem with postmodernism is that it proposes no myths and seeks only to subvert those of our liberal bourgeois society.
Frye is interested in metaphor because it is a common literary device and because "God is a socially postulated metaphor." Unfortunately by focussing heavily on metaphors Frye wanders first into semiotics (the since of the "signifier and the "signified") and then into postmodern deconstruction. He unfortunately validates the postmodern endeavour in literary criticism rather than elucidating its weaknesses.
In "The Great Code" Frye using Vico's historical model divides literature into three phases in a recurring cycle: (1) divine era - mythic literature:(2) heroic era - romantic literature; and (3) human era - factual or logical era. Under this scheme, one would expect Frye to classify post-modern literature as a late or decadent phenomenon of in the human-factual era. As such it would seem to announce the end of the cycle ("ricorso" in Vico's terms) and a return to the divine- mythic era. The fact that Frye refrains from doing so is difficult to explain.
The two best essays in the collection are on Thomas More's "Utopia" and Baldassare Castiglione's "Book of the Courtier" neither of which address the prime issues of the collection myth and metaphor. In this two essays he lucidly explains how the world view (weltanschauung) of the Renaissance differed from ours and what the particularly visions of the two authors were. It is regrettable that his various pieces on myth and metaphor are not nearly as good.
"Myth and Metaphor" is only for those who have already read Frye's major works and wish to work their way through his entire opus. We still need an Aristotelian to properly critique Derrida and his postmodernist followers.
October 26, 2025
Wiem, że nic nie wiem
(pani Lidia mnie zabije, czuję lęk)
(pani Lidia mnie zabije, czuję lęk)
September 24, 2023
I only read two of these (they’re not on here individually) but they were so convoluted and took up so much of my time that I’m counting them anyway
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews