Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, CC FRSCwas a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth14 July 1912
CitySherbrooke, Canada
CountryCanada
imagination literature language
Literature speaks the language of the imagination, and the study of literature is supposed to train and improve the imagination.
imagination situation rhetorical
We find rhetorical situations everywhere in life, and only our imaginations can get us out of them.
firsts study structure
The first thing that confronts us in studying verbal structures is that they are arranged sequentially, and have to be read or listened to in time.
superstitions benefits kind
Writers don't seem to benefit much by the advance of science, although they thrive on superstitions of all kinds.
magic literature kind
No human society is too primitive to have some kind of literature. The only thing is that primitive literature hasn't yet become distinguished from other aspects of life: it's still embedded in religion, magic and social ceremonies.
reading succeed ends
Those who do succeed in reading the Bible from beginning to end will discover that at least it has a beginning and an end, and some traces of a total structure.
focus mind operations
The operations of the human mind are also controlled by words of power, formulas that become a focus of mental activity.
thinking reflection order
The objective world is the order of nature, thinking or reflection follows the suggestions of sense experience, and words are the servomechanisms of reflection.
literature doe students
I soon realized that a student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is going on in what he reads: The most conscientous student will be continually misconstruing the implications, even the meaning.
healthy movement culture
Separatism is a very healthy movement within culture. It's a disastrous movement within politics and economics.
knowledge answers hardest
The simplest questions are the hardest to answer.
art poetry literature
In literature, questions of fact or truth are subordinated to the primary literary aims of producing a structure of words for its own sake, and the sign-values of symbols are subordinated to their importance as a structure of interconnected motifs.
fables tortoises tire
The fable says that the tortoise won in the end, which is consoling, but the hare shows a good deal of speed and few signs of tiring.
thinking answers literature
The kind of problem that literature raises is not the kind that you ever 'solve'. Whether my answers are any good or not, they represent a fair amount of thinking about the questions.