Category Archives: Frye Centenary

Fryeday: Ninety-nine Years and Counting

Frye and Barry Callaghan on the back cover of Callaghan’s memoir, Barrelhouse Kings.

Today is Frye’s 99th birthday, which means we’re in the run-up to what will undoubtedly be an eventful centenary.

Looking back at our posts for Frye’s 98th birthday on July 14, 2010, we’re reminded what a busy and eventful time it was.

First of all, it occurred during a rising storm of protest after the University of Toronto announced the closing of the Centre for Comparative Literature, which was founded by Frye. The closure was eventually cancelled, in large part through the efforts of highly dedicated people, like our own Jonathan Allan. Our first post of the day, therefore, was a letter from Bob Denham to U of T President David Naylor, offering support for the Centre.

Next up was a compilation of birthday entries from Frye’s personal diaries, as well as many more letters to his fiance, Helen Kemp, covering the period 1932 to 1950; and, finally, selections from his notebooks at the other end of his life.

There then followed a post about the legacy and continuing importance of the Centre for Comparative Literature from Jonthan Allan.

Then came an update from Dawn Arnold of the Frye Festival on the competition for funding of a community project. Moncton’s proposal was to raise a statue of Northrop Frye to sit in front of the Moncton Public Library, an institution Frye worked for in his youth. The bid did not succeed, but it was very close. I remain hopeful that, with the centenary approaching, the good people of Moncton will somehow get their wish.

That was followed by a birthday greeting from reader Tamara Kamermans, in the form of a novelty video of the Beatles playing “Birthday.”

Finally, a post to round out an eventful day: an announcement that the website was now on Facebook, and a further announcement of a new addition to our journal, a paper by Ken Paradis.

This is a good time to remind readers that we have a dedicated category, Call for Papers, which includes solicitations related to the centenary. We also have a separate category, Frye Centenary, which we expect will fill with more content as the year progresses.

There’s obviously a story attached to the wonderful photo above, and you can read it after the jump. As it was Alice Munro’s 80th birthday the other day, it’s nice that she appears in it too, along with a number of other Canadian luminaries.

Continue reading

Call for Papers, Frye Centenary Conference, October 2012

A call for papers via Neil ten Kortenaar

CFP: Educating the Imagination: A Conference in Honour of Northrop Frye on the Centenary of His Birth.

October 4,5,6, 2012, Victoria University in the University of Toronto

Twenty years after his death, Northrop Frye, the author of Fearful Symmetry and Anatomy of Criticism, continues to be one of the most read and the most quoted of literary critics.  His attention to form, specifically to genre and mode, and his understanding of literature as a totality have directly influenced two later generations of critics, including Hayden White  Fredric Jameson, and Franco Moretti.  In order to celebrate this ongoing legacy, the Department of English and the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, Frye’s home throughout his career, have organized a three-day symposium in his honour.

Keynote speakers:

Ian Balfour, York University, author of Northrop Frye (1988), The Rhetoric of Romantic Prophecy (2002)

Robert Bringhurst, poet, author of A Story As Sharp As a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World (1999) and Selected Poetry (2009)

J. Edward Chamberlin, University of Toronto, author of Come Back to Me My Language: Poetry and the West Indies (1993) and If This Is Your Land, Where  Are Your Stories? (2003)

Michael Dolzani, Baldwin-Wallace College, editor of Frye’s Notebooks

W.J.T. Mitchell, University of Chicago, editor of Critical Inquiry and author of What Do Pictures Want? (2005) and Picture Theory (1994)

Gordon Teskey, Harvard University, author of Delirious Milton (2006); Allegory and Violence (1996)

There will be panels devoted to Frye’s specific legacy, which we are now in a better position to appreciate because of the completed publication of the Collected Works in thirty volumes.  But we also invite speakers to take inspiration from Frye and to consider literary and cultural topics such as:

1. Educating the Imagination when the Humanities are under threat

Frye and Comparative Literature

2. The place of Western Literature and theory in a global context.

The spread and the provincialization of Europe.

The limits of the Great Code

3. Contemporary manifestations of traditional literary modes:

The popular romance

Contemporary tragedy

Irony after postmodernism

4. Creative responses to the Bible in an era of fundamentalism and secularism

5. The survival of the literary imagination in a digital age

6. Canadian literature in a postnational age

7. The Great Code and Islam

8. History as Narrative

9. Nature in an era of environmental crisis

10.  Local literature, local forms

Proposals for papers or panels of papers are welcome. Abstracts of 200 words (for papers) are due January 31, 2012. Please send them by e-mail to frye.2012@utoronto.ca

Organizers: Alan Bewell, Chair, Department of English (a.bewell@utoronto.ca)

Neil ten Kortenaar, Director, Centre for Comparative Literature (neil.kortenaar@utoronto.ca), Germaine Warkentin

Calls for Papers

Frye, about age 10

As the Frye centenary approaches, the calls for papers increase.  We will continue to post them as they come in, and, for good measure, we will regularly put up a tickler to remind people of them until their deadlines pass.  We also now have a separate “Call for Papers” search category which will make it easier for people to find them in a hurry.

Call for Papers: Special Issue of “English Studies in Canada”

A call for papers from English Studies in Canada:

To mark Northrop Frye’s 100th birthday and as part of the process of revaluation of this important figure, ESC is planning a special issue on Frye.  Northrop Frye was enormously influential and in a variety of fields and with a variety of individuals, so we are encouraging papers from all disciplines, as well as English.  Submissions are welcome on any topic or approach relevant to Frye.  Topics might include:

What does Frye have to say to us today? — Current perceptions of Frye — Frye and McLuhan — Frye and Canadian literature/culture — Visionary Frye — Frye’s sources —Frye and Music —Frye’s reputation— Applying Frye’s ideas or approaches to specific texts (or movies) — Frye¹s concepts (e.g., displacement) — Frye in other language contexts —Frye’s impact on literary studies —Frye and the Sixties — Frye and Genre — Frye and Popular Culture — Frye’s diaries / letters — Bibliographic issues — Frye and Blake (or Dickinson or Shakespeare or Milton or any other specific author) — Is it time for a Frye revival? —Frye as teacher —Frye and poetry —Specific Frye texts (e.g., Fearful Symmetry) — Frye and other critics — Frye and other fields and disciplines — Frye and education — Frye and faith — Frye and the university — Frye and institutional religion — Frye and politics — Frye’s view of history — Frye and children’s literature or science fiction or fantasy or detective fiction — Frye and creative writing—The new edition — Frye and the media — Frye and the Bible — Frye and the visual — Frye and imagination — Humour and Frye

In addition, shorter notes detailing personal responses to Frye’s work are welcome.  What is your personal view of Frye, his place, his influence, what he has meant to you?  Give us a brief reflection on Frye.

Submit by email—in Word 2003, please: mnicholson@tru.ca

or by regular mail at the address below.  Submissions by 15 July please

Mervyn Nicholson

Department of English

Thompson Rivers University

Box 3010, Kamloops

British Columbia

V2C 5N3

Call for Submissions to Frye Centenary Edition of “ellipse”

Frye as a 17 year old freshman at Victoria College, 1929-1930

The literary journal ellipse is calling for submissions for a special edition, to be published in the spring of 2012, to mark Northrop Frye’s centenary year.

Poems, stories, and essays are welcome, in English or in French. Stories and essays should be 4,000 words maximum.

Contributions do not necessarily have to be directly influenced or shaped by Frye’s thought, as long as they are submitted to honour Frye on his 100th birthday.

A section of the journal will also be devoted to Memories of Frye from former students, colleagues, and friends. Please submit in the range of 1,000 words or less.

The launch of this special edition, with readings by some contributors, will take place in Moncton in April, 2012, as part of the Frye Fest’s three-day celebration of the centenary.

Ellipse, under the direction of Jo-Anne Elder, is a journal that focuses on Canadian Writing in Translation / textes littéraires canadiens en traduction. Some of the selected pieces will be translated for this special edition.

Co-Editors for this special issue will be Ed Lemond and Suzanne Cyr, Co-Chairs of the program committee for the Frye Festival.

Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2011. E-mail submissions are preferred. Please send submissions to ellipsefrye@gmail.com

By regular mail send to:

revue ellipse mag

180 Liverpool Street

Fredericton, NB E3B 4V5

The Frye Centenary: University of Toronto Conference


University of Toronto professors Alan Bewell (English) and Neil ten Kortenaar (English/Comparative Literature) have forwarded us a preliminary call for papers in anticipation of the Frye centenary.

*

Educating the Imagination: A Conference in Honour of Northrop Frye on the Centenary of His Birth

September 27-30, 2012, University of Toronto

Twenty years after his death, Northrop Frye, the author of Fearful Symmetry and Anatomy of Criticism, continues to be one of the most read and the most quoted of literary critics.  His attention to form, specifically to genre and mode, and his understanding of literature as a totality have directly influenced two later generations of critics, including Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, and Franco Moretti.  In order to celebrate this ongoing legacy, the Department of English and the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, Frye’s home throughout his career, have organized a three-day symposium in his honour.

There will be panels devoted to Frye’s specific legacy, which we are now in a better position to appreciate because of the completed publication of the Collected Works in thirty volumes.  But we also invite speakers to take inspiration from Frye and to consider literary and cultural topics such as:

1. Educating the Imagination when the Humanities are under threat

Frye and Comparative Literature

2. the place of Western Literature and theory in a global context.

The spread and the provincialization of Europe.

The limits of the Great Code

3. Contemporary manifestations of traditional literary modes:

the popular romance

contemporary tragedy

irony after postmodernism

4. the place of the Bible in an era of fundamentalism and secularism

5. The survival of the literary imagination in a digital age

6. Canadian literature in a postnational age

7. The Great Code and Islam

8. History as Narrative

9. Frye and Ecology

10.  Local literature, local forms

Organizers: Alan Bewell, Chair, Department of English (a.bewell@utoronto.ca)

Neil ten Kortenaar, Director, Centre for Comparative Literature (neil.kortenaar@utoronto.ca)