Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays

Frye, Northrop

ISBN 10: 0691069999 / ISBN 13: 9780691069999

Published by Princeton University Press, 2000

Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0691069999I5N00

Synopsis:

Striking out at the conception of criticism as restricted to mere opinion or ritual gesture, Northrop Frye wrote this magisterial work proceeding on the assumption that criticism is a structure of thought and knowledge in its own right. In four brilliant essays on historical, ethical, archetypical, and rhetorical criticism, employing examples of world literature from ancient times to the present, Frye reconceived literary criticism as a total history rather than a linear progression through time.

Literature, Frye wrote, is "the place where our imaginations find the ideal that they try to pass on to belief and action, where they find the vision which is the source of both the dignity and the joy of life." And the critical study of literature provides a basic way "to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in."

Harold Bloom contributes a fascinating and highly personal preface that examines Frye's mode of criticism and thought (as opposed to Frye's criticism itself) as being indispensable in the modern literary world.

About the Author: Northrop Frye was University Professor in the University of Toronto and Professor of English in Victoria College, University of Toronto. His books include Fearful Symmetry: A Study Of William Blake (Princeton).

Bibliographic Details

Title: Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication Date: 2000
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Fair
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket