{"id":2681,"date":"2009-09-17T00:17:57","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T04:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=2681"},"modified":"2009-09-17T00:17:57","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T04:17:57","slug":"frye-and-chesterton-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/09\/17\/frye-and-chesterton-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Frye and Chesterton (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2683\" src=\"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/09\/chesterton_orthodoxy_lg1.jpg\" alt=\"chesterton_orthodoxy_lg\" width=\"240\" height=\"390\" srcset=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/09\/chesterton_orthodoxy_lg1.jpg 240w, https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/09\/chesterton_orthodoxy_lg1-184x300.jpg 184w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In Frye\u2019s criticism, the literary critic should ideally be able to look at a literary work apart from its content, that is, \u201cwithout making a judgment along the lines of one\u2019s prejudices or one\u2019s commitments in the world\u201d (\u201cLiterature as Possession\u201d; <em>CW<\/em> 21:305).\u00a0 He recognizes that our way into literature may initially be through writers with identities similar to our own, but for Frye the reader should quickly learn to leave those identities behind, and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/G_K_Chesterton\" target=\"_blank\">G. K. Chesterton<\/a> is one of his standard examples of a critic whose judgment was deformed by his ideological allegiances.\u00a0 Frye considers the inability to transcend one\u2019s own structure of beliefs and values as a form of anxiety: \u201cThere have been many great critics, such as Coleridge or Ruskin, or their followers like G. K. Chesterton and others, who seem to be incapable of making an aesthetic judgment.\u00a0 They make no statement about literature not coloured by anxieties of some kind\u201d (<em>CW<\/em> 21:305).\u00a0 Frye has a lot to say about Ruskin, some of it high praise, whereas Chesterton does not figure prominently in his writing, except as an example of someone who \u201ccan\u2019t think of the arts except as a source of homiletic points\u201d (<em>Diaries<\/em>, 26 Feb. 1949; <em>CW<\/em> 8:141).<\/p>\n<p>In a future post, I will compare some comments by Chesterton and Frye about the Middle Ages.\u00a0 I will conclude this instalment with a comment from Chesterton\u2019s <em>Charles Dickens<\/em> (1906) that has a bearing on the discussion earlier about <a href=\"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/2009\/09\/13\/calvin-and-frye\/\" target=\"_blank\">Frye and Calvinism<\/a>.\u00a0 Chesterton sounds rather like Frye interpreting Blake; he is discussing Dickens\u2019s ability to evoke an atmosphere of mystery, with specific reference here to <em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Little_Dorrit\" target=\"_blank\">Little Dorrit<\/a><\/em>: \u201cThe dark house of Arthur Clennam\u2019s childhood really depresses us; it is a true glimpse into that quiet street in hell, where live the children of that unique dispensation which theologians call Calvinism and Christians devil-worship.\u201d\u00a0 (I should add, as befits someone who received part of his education in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rpc.ox.ac.uk\/home.php?home=yes\">a college founded by Baptists<\/a>, that I realize there is a lot more that can be said about Calvinism than is contained in Chesterton\u2019s remark!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 In Frye\u2019s criticism, the literary critic should ideally be able to look at a literary work apart from its content, that is, \u201cwithout making a judgment along the lines of one\u2019s prejudices or one\u2019s commitments in the world\u201d (\u201cLiterature as Possession\u201d; CW 21:305).\u00a0 He recognizes that our way into literature may initially be through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-criticism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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