Northrop Frye facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Northrop Frye
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Frye in 1984
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Herman Northrop Frye
July 14, 1912 Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
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| Died | January 23, 1991 (aged 78) |
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Notable work
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Anatomy of Criticism (1957) | ||||||
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| Institutions | Victoria College, Toronto | ||||||
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Herman Northrop Frye (born July 14, 1912 – died January 23, 1991) was a famous Canadian literary critic and literary theorist. He is known as one of the most important thinkers about literature in the 20th century.
Frye became well-known around the world with his first book, Fearful Symmetry (1947). This book helped people understand the poetry of William Blake in a new way. His most famous work is Anatomy of Criticism (1957). This book shared his ideas about how literary criticism works.
Contents
About Northrop Frye
Early life and education
Northrop Frye was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. He grew up in Moncton, New Brunswick. He was the third child of Herman Edward Frye and Catherine Maud Howard.
In 1929, Frye went to Toronto for a national typing contest. He then studied philosophy at Victoria College in Toronto. There, he edited the college's literary magazine.
After that, he studied theology at Emmanuel College. He became a minister in the United Church of Canada. He also studied at Merton College, Oxford in England. He spent the rest of his career as a professor at Victoria College.
Academic and writing career
Frye became famous after his book Fearful Symmetry was published in 1947. Before this, the poems of William Blake were often hard to understand. Frye showed that Blake's poems had a system of ideas based on Paradise Lost and the Bible.
His study of Blake's poetry greatly changed how literature was studied. Frye influenced many writers and critics, including Harold Bloom and Margaret Atwood.
Frye was a professor at the University of Toronto for most of his career. He also served as the chancellor of Victoria College.
Family life
In 1937, Frye married Helen Kemp, who was an educator and artist. She passed away in 1986 while they were on a lecture tour. Two years later, in 1988, he married Elizabeth Brown. Northrop Frye died in 1991 and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario.
Frye's ideas about literature
What is literary criticism?
Northrop Frye believed that literary criticism should be a serious field of study. He wanted to create a clear way to understand and talk about literature. He thought that criticism should not just be about saying if a book is good or bad. Instead, it should help us understand how literature works.
Frye's main idea was that literature has its own rules and patterns. He said that critics should study these patterns. This way, literary criticism could be like a science, with its own system of knowledge.
The "Order of Words"
Frye noticed that many great books use similar basic ideas and stories. He called these "primitive formulas." He believed that literature is not just a random collection of books. Instead, it is an "order of words." This means that all literature is connected by shared patterns.
These shared patterns are like a skeleton for literature. They help us understand any story by seeing how it fits into the bigger picture of literature. Frye called these common patterns "archetypes." Archetypes are like universal symbols or story patterns that appear in many different works.
Myths and the imagination
Frye thought that literature comes from our imagination. He said that literature is closely linked to myths and folk-tales. He believed that every human society has its own myths. Literature then helps to share and change these myths.
For Frye, myths are at the heart of literature and society. They provide the basic stories and ideas that we use to understand the world. He learned this idea from an Italian thinker named Giambattista Vico.
How Frye studied literature
Frye used two main ways to study literature:
- Centripetal criticism: This is when you look closely at the story itself. You study its structure, words, and images. For example, when you read a poem, you might focus on its sounds and how the words are put together.
- Centrifugal criticism: This is when you look at how the story connects to society and the outside world. You think about its themes and how they relate to real life. For example, a novel about social problems would be studied this way.
Frye believed both ways were important. He said that understanding literature means looking both inside the text and at its connections to the world.
Archetypal criticism
Frye's idea of "archetypal criticism" helps us see the bigger picture. By studying the recurring patterns (archetypes) in literature, we can understand the myths that shape our society. This helps us think differently about the world around us.
Frye believed that studying literature was a very important part of a good education. He wanted to share his ideas with many people, not just other critics. He felt that literature could help us expand our minds and see new possibilities.
Canadian literature
Northrop Frye also studied Canadian poetry and literature. He noticed common themes in Canadian writing. He wrote about the idea of the "garrison mentality."
Garrison mentality
The "garrison mentality" describes a feeling of being isolated and surrounded by a wild, challenging landscape. Frye suggested that this feeling was common in Canadian communities. He believed it influenced Canadian literature, making it focus on social rules and values.
Frye thought that as Canadian cities grew, writers might become more confident. This could lead to new kinds of Canadian literature. He believed it was important to study Canadian writing to understand the Canadian imagination.
Awards and honours
Northrop Frye received many awards and honours for his work. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1951. He also won the Canada Council Molson Prize in 1971 and the Royal Bank Award in 1978.
In 1972, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. This is one of Canada's highest honours. In 2000, Canada honoured him by putting his image on a postage stamp.
There is an international literary festival called The Frye Festival held every April in Moncton, New Brunswick, named after him. Several buildings and programs at the University of Toronto are also named in his honour. A statue of Frye sitting on a park bench can be found in Moncton and at Victoria College in Toronto.
In 2018, Northrop Frye was named a National Historic Person in Canada.
Works by Northrop Frye
Here are some of Northrop Frye's well-known books:
- Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake
- Anatomy of Criticism
- The Educated Imagination
- The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination
- The Great Code: The Bible and Literature
- Words with Power: Being a Second Study of The Bible and Literature
- The Double Vision of Language, Nature, Time, and God
Images for kids
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Northrop Frye Hall, University of Toronto
See also
In Spanish: Northrop Frye para niños
