David Staynes of the University of Ottawa in an audio interview discussing Frye, evaluative criticism, John Metcalf, and the best Canadian novels here.
Frye Alert
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Frye Alert
Here are some papers on Frye posted as PDFs on the web.
Dr. Marek Oziewicz, “Myth and Archetypal Criticism”
J. Thulasi, “‘Imagination at the School of Seasons’ — The Educated Imagination — An Overview”
Edward Jayne, Review of The Critical Path
Frye Alert
Anime Addix cites Frye on romance in a post here.
Last of Translation cites Harold Bloom on Frye here.
Finally, this is interesting: WordPress is apparently using this post on Frye to demonstrate the value of student blogs. It’s nice to know that someone out there somewhere is thinking of Frye when shilling academic software.
Frye Alert
A link to Mario Valdes’ address to the 2009 Annual Graduate Colloquium on Comparative Literature here. Valdes opens with extensive remarks on Frye.
Frye Alert
“Casey Jones” in the blog ceci n’est pas un journal has a post referencing Fearful Symmetry and Menippean satire here. He also produces this pungent little quote from the New York Review of Books: “It seems to me that Derrida in context is even worse than Derrida out of context” (hit the link and scroll all the way down to the end, just before the Notes).
Frye Alert
A reader’s response to a Frank Rich editorial, “The Rage Is Not about Health Care,” in the New York Times cites Frye on the hero:
The fact that the McConnells, Boehners, Cantors, and even McCains fear the wrath of unhinged, racist, screaming Teabaggers is the clearest indication possible that none of them are leaders. They are sheep. Abject figures who might be pitied for their impotence if they were not positioned to affect the direction of this country so negatively.
Literary critic Northrop Frye described the true leader as a hero, one who stands apart from the crowd, whose power stems from being able to adopt a position from strength rather than from weakness. Does this description call to mind anyone from the Republican party?
Historian and philosopher Isaiah Berlin, in his essay “From Hope and Fear Set Free” outlines the features that distinguish a rational person from an unfree, fearful person. Berlin states that the rational man is one who can act freely, not mechanically, who acts upon sound motives. The fearful man “is like someone who is drugged or hypnotised.”
Do the current crop of Republican “heroes” sound like either of these archetypes? Of course, it’s the second. They who foment fear are themselves fearful. They who are bound by ideological chains are barely able to see clearly. They who stand, not apart from the mob, in a position of strength, but hiding from it, in a fetal position of fear, cannot lead. They can only cower and whine and threaten.
There are no leaders on the right. They are led to the brink, like Lord Franklin’s doomed expedition, by addled fanatics like Limbaugh and Beck, and inanities like Palin; dragging down everyone with them, insisting that their weakness of mental acuity be recognized as some kind of sign that they are not “intellectuals” or socialists.
This country needs the balance of at least two functioning parties, both of which have leaders ready to stand up for the best America has to offer and to point her in the right direction. Unfortunately, we have only one rational party.
And if the above descriptions don’t fit any Republicans, they do seem to fit at least one Democrat.
That gentleman in the Oval Office.
Frye Alert
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bebHG–W8s0
The closing sequence of 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
The Australian blog Art Neuro today mentions Frye while praising Canadian culture, and Canadian film especially:
Nobody says it out loud, but Canada is the cultured, well-educated, bookish, serious brother to the sporty, happy-go-lucky, pretentious Australia. Here’s something for people to chew on: the film that kicked off the Australian film renaissance in 1970 was ‘Wake in Fright’, directed by Ted Kotcheff who is a Canadian.
Canada is the land of Glenn Gould and ‘32 Short Films About Glenn Gould’. Australia is the land of David Helfgott and ‘Shine’. Their premier pianist defined the playing of Bach for generations to come. Our pianist is a guy who had a breakdown trying to play Rachmaninoff’s third and went crazy. The movie about their guy is one of the most significant biopics of all time. Our biopic is an Oscar winner but really just another movie.
Another Canadian, John Ralston Saul is a front line top of the heap intellectual. We don’t have anybody who can go toe to toe with John Ralston Saul. Canada produced Northrop Frye. We don’t have a single literary critic that can hold a candle to Northrop Frye, then or since.
You can read the entire post here.
Also, PDF Database offers a number of Frye related PDFs here.
Frye Alert
Frye is cited in a couple of blogs today, for very different purposes, reminding us just how broad and generous that intellect of his is.
“Junk Politics,” in Bill Toten’s Weblog, and “The Thriller, A Consideration,” in The Denver Bibliophile.
Frye Alert
Two student bloggers produced brief posts yesterday on The Educated Imagination‘s “Giants in Time“. Either it’s a remarkable coincidence, or they’re both working through the same academic timetable. Either way, it’s nice to see that young students especially continue to engage this work.
Frye Alert
Portrait of Francis Sharshott, by Barker Fairley
Here is a link to Francis Sparshott’s lively and engaging “Frye in Place” (PDF). According to Bob Denham’s Annotated Bibliography, this essay was published in Canadian Literature 83 (Winter 1979): 143-155.