{"id":4723,"date":"2009-10-28T15:48:48","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T19:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=4723"},"modified":"2009-10-28T15:48:48","modified_gmt":"2009-10-28T19:48:48","slug":"4723","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/10\/28\/4723\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five Phases of Symbolism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4742\" src=\"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/anagogy2.jpg\" alt=\"anagogy2\" width=\"320\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/anagogy2.jpg 400w, https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/anagogy2-232x300.jpg 232w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Clayton Chrusch, in response to <a href=\"https:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/wp-admin\/post.php?action=edit&amp;post=4651\" target=\"_blank\">Trevor Losh-Johnson<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First of all, thanks so much to <a href=\"https:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/wp-admin\/post.php?action=edit&amp;post=4608\" target=\"_blank\">Joe <\/a>and<a href=\"https:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/wp-admin\/post.php?action=edit&amp;post=4619\" target=\"_blank\"> Bob<\/a> for extremely helpful responses.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/wp-admin\/post.php?action=edit&amp;post=4651\" target=\"_blank\">Trevor<\/a>, my master\u2019s thesis was about the theory of symbols [<em>Five Kinds of Freedom: Northrop Frye&#8217;s Theory of Symbols and Thich Nhat Hanh&#8217;s <\/em>Old Path and White Clouds.\u00a0 McMaster University. 2002 ]<\/p>\n<p>I have to admit the phases are difficult to distinguish. The descriptive phase is the odd one out, but the other phases can be thought of as expanding concentric spheres. In each one, the context of the poem is wider than in the previous. So in the literal phase, the context is simply the verbal structure of the poem itself, and the assumption of its criticism is the unity of the poem. In the formal phase, the context is the imaginative world constructed by the poem, and the assumption of the criticism is the unity of imagery. In the mythical phase, the context is the imaginative structure constructed by all of literature, and its assumption is the reality of such a structure (\u201dthe order of words\u201d) and its relevance to the poem in question. In the anagogic phase, which I don\u2019t really understand, I think the context is the infinite potential of the imaginative universe, and the assumption of anagogic phase criticism is that the poem is the expression of infinite creative human power. I\u2019m probably wrong about anagogy, but I\u2019m more certain about the others.<\/p>\n<p>It seems to me that not much of interest happens at the literal phase that is not also part of higher phases. I\u2019ve written an essay about grammar in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Virginia_Woolf\" target=\"_blank\">Virginia Woolf\u2019<\/a>s writing that probably counts as literal phase criticism. I think of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gertrude_Stein\" target=\"_blank\">Gertrude Stein<\/a>\u2019s work but even that can be responded to at the level of imagery. So I would say interesting work on the poem as an imaginative unit all happens in the formal phase. Frye seems to want to associate the new critics with the literal phase but based on my reading of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Well_Wrought_Urn:_Studies_in_the_Structure_of_Poetry\" target=\"_blank\">Cleanth Brooks<\/a>, at least, they belong at the formal phase (or maybe both, but not the literal phase exclusively).<\/p>\n<p>So I would say that if you are interested in the unity of imagery in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Faerie_Queene\" target=\"_blank\">The Faerie Queene<\/a> without explicit reference to the use of that imagery in other poems, what you may need is a new critical reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clayton Chrusch, in response to Trevor Losh-Johnson: First of all, thanks so much to Joe and Bob for extremely helpful responses. Trevor, my master\u2019s thesis was about the theory of symbols [Five Kinds of Freedom: Northrop Frye&#8217;s Theory of Symbols and Thich Nhat Hanh&#8217;s Old Path and White Clouds.\u00a0 McMaster University. 2002 ] I have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"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":[4,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anatomy-of-criticism","category-guest-bloggers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Five Phases of Symbolism - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/10\/28\/4723\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Five Phases of Symbolism - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Clayton Chrusch, in response to Trevor Losh-Johnson: First of all, thanks so much to Joe and Bob for extremely helpful responses. 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