{"id":3403,"date":"2009-09-30T10:30:43","date_gmt":"2009-09-30T14:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=3403"},"modified":"2009-09-30T10:30:43","modified_gmt":"2009-09-30T14:30:43","slug":"centripetal-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/09\/30\/centripetal-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Centripetal Meaning and Primary Concern"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3404\" src=\"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/09\/pig.jpg\" alt=\"pig\" width=\"413\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/09\/pig.jpg 1434w, https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/09\/pig-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/09\/pig-1024x677.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 413px) 100vw, 413px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/2009\/09\/28\/%e2%80%9cthe-bondage-of-history%e2%80%9d\/#more-3336\" target=\"_blank\">Russell Perkin<\/a> expresses some concern that literature has limits.\u00a0 As he put it in a <a href=\"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/2009\/09\/29\/re-a-reply-to-russell-perkin\/\" target=\"_blank\">comment yesterday<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>the nagging point that [Deanne] Bogdan raises for me is that, to quote her again \u201cthe hypothetical dimension of literature notwithstanding, literature does say things.\u201d It doesn\u2019t entirely leave behind what Frye calls \u201cthe original reference,\u201d though of course it cannot be reduced to that either.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s at this point we really need to remind ourselves that Frye consistently observes\u00a0that literary structures are primarily centripetal in reference.\u00a0 This is very easily demonstrated: you don&#8217;t need to believe in ghosts to appreciate <em>Hamlet<\/em>, you don&#8217;t have to be Catholic to\u00a0access <em>The Divine Comedy.\u00a0 <\/em>Heck, you hardly require the English language to experience Lewis Carroll&#8217;s <em>Jabberwocky<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That primarily centripetal direction of literary meaning carries it beyond mere\u00a0metonymic reference\u00a0with its undeniable &#8220;limits&#8221; to the liberating power of archetypal metaphor (<em>pace <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/2009\/09\/30\/clayton-chrusch-archetype-a-mistake\/\" target=\"_blank\">Clayton Chrusch<\/a>), whose patterns include not just the four <em>mythoi <\/em>of <em>Anatomy<\/em> but the four primary concerns of <em>Words with Power<\/em>.\u00a0 That is, the <em>ethos<\/em> of literary criticism\u00a0is ulitmately (anagogically, kerygmatically)\u00a0meta-literary: revealing the source of\u00a0literature&#8217;s autonomy and authority, which\u00a0express the imaginative constants of literary narrative\u00a0driven by the\u00a0existential constants of primary concern.\u00a0 This is not to say that the secondary concerns of ideology\u00a0are irrelevant, but, in Frye&#8217;s &#8220;verbal universe&#8221;\u00a0they are secondary, they are subordinated.\u00a0\u00a0The inability of any critical theory to appreciate\u00a0the distinction between metaphor and metonymy or\u00a0primary and secondary concern\u00a0suggests why so much of what now passes for literary criticism has the character of wrestling a greased pig.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a losing proposition; there&#8217;s nothing to hold onto securely, except the anxiety of the fact that\u00a0the struggle must continue and cannot be won.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Russell Perkin expresses some concern that literature has limits.\u00a0 As he put it in a comment yesterday: the nagging point that [Deanne] Bogdan raises for me is that, to quote her again \u201cthe hypothetical dimension of literature notwithstanding, literature does say things.\u201d It doesn\u2019t entirely leave behind what Frye calls \u201cthe original reference,\u201d though [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"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":[4,92,99,125,170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anatomy-of-criticism","category-literary-criticism","category-metaphor","category-primary-concern","category-words-with-power"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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