New Releases by Northrop Frye

Offers fresh insights into ten of Shakespeare''s most popular plays, relating each of these works to others and discussing many of the central elements of Shakespearean drama

Discusses the future of liberal education in an increasingly technological society.

Revised to meet the changing literary interests and emphases of the twenty-first century, the second edition of The Harper Handbook to Literature adds, augments, and clarifies definitions. Arranged in alphabetical order, this Handbook aims to satisfy curiosity about terms such as syzygy or zeugma, concepts such as structuralism or phenomenology, and literary genres and movements such as Drama or Goliardic verse. Over 100 items are new to this edition, including Queer Theory, Reader-Response Theory, Cultural Studies, Anxiety of Influence, Logocentrism, Orientalism, and Saussurean Linguistics, to name only a few. Entries generally range from a few words to summary essays with bibliographies for further study, and cross-references lead from definitions to larger concepts. A practical "Chronology of Literature and World Events", at the end of the text presents a comprehensive timeline from the earliest cities of Mesopotamia to contemporary names and titles.

This collection of a dozen major essays written in recent year is vintage Frye—the fine distillation of a lifetime of originative thinking about literature and its context. The essays in Spiritus Mundi—the title comes from one of Yeat''s best known poems, "The Second Coming," and refers to the book that was supposedly the source of Yeat''s apocalyptic vision of a "great beast, slouching toward Bethlehem"—are arranges in three groups of four essays each. The first four are about the "contexts of literature," the second are about the "mythological universe," and the last are studies of four of the great visionary or myth-making poets who have been enduring sources of interest for Frye: Milton, Blake, Yeats, and Wallace Stevens. The volume is full of agreeable surprises: a delightful piece on charms and riddles is followed by an illuminating essay on Shakespearean romance. Like most of the other essays in the book, these two are compressed and elegant expositions of ideas that in the hands of a lesser writer would have required a book. In another selection Frye rescues Spengler from neglect and argues for the inclusion of The Decline of the West among the major imaginative books produced by the Western world. Elsewhere he advances the case for placing Copernicus in a pantheon composed primarily of literary figures. OF particular interest are several essays in which Frye comments personally and reflectively on the influence he has had on the study of literature and the reactions elicited by his work. In "The Renaissance of Books" he dissents from the opinion of the McLuhanites that the written word is showing signs of obsolescence and argues that books are "the technological instrument that makes democracy possible." As the dozen essays collected here amply attest, Northrop Frye continues to be the most perceptive and most persuasive exponent of the power of mythological imagination—or as he himself calls it, "the mythological habit of mind"—written in English.

"A world-renowned critic and scholar examines the continuing cultural importance of the Bible as the single most important influence in the imaginative tradition of Western art and literature. Frye rejects both dogmatic and literal interpretations while celebrating the uniqueness of the Bible as distinct from all other epics and sacred texts. His highly original analysis shows the Bible as redeeming history with a visionary poetic perspective that complements science in the understanding of man''s nature."--Book cover.

Perhaps the most influential critical thinker of our time, Northrop Frye has long commented upon the cultural life of his own country. The Bush Garden is now a standard work on Canadian writing and painting, and Divisions on a Ground continues Frye''s extraordinary enquiry into Canada''s literature, universities, social assumptions, and national character. In 13 essays and addresses, Fry covers a broad range of subject matter, from future shock to the meaning of Canada''s history; from student politics to the idea of the university; from regional verse to Marshall McLuhan and the age of television.Provocative, splendidly written and quite entertaining, Divisions on a Ground shows Northrop Frye at his most accessible: a book of prime importance for every North American.

"This book is an anthology. It covers the forms and varieties of fiction, poetry, and drama, moving from the simple elements to the more subtle and complex, with introductory principles and questions to guide the student''s progress ... "--Preface, page xix.

This philosophic inquiry into fundamental problems of literature and society is an immensely important addition to the canon of one of America''s most original and distinguished critics. What is the function of poetry? Of criticism? In what sense does the poet "know"? What is the relationship between a society and its art? Northrop Frye conducts us on an illuminating survey of these and other broad philosophic issues and offers many incidental insights into specific cultural phenomena as well. Such matters as Marxist aesthetics, Renaissance humanism, the relation of poetry to religion, the idea of progress, and the challenge of our contemporary youth culture are among the dozen interesting topics that engage his attention along the way. Mr. Frye identifies two predominating ideologies in Western culture which he designates as the "myth of concern" and the "myth of freedom." A fully developed myth of concern, he writes, "compromises everything that it most concerns a society to know." Its purpose is to hold society together, hence its deeply conservative character. The "myth of freedom," on the other hand, embodies the "liberal" attitudes of objectivity and respect for the individual. The author traces the relative importance of these two myths from Homeric Greece to the present, relating them to the types of art and government they foster, the roles of the poet and critic, and many other topics. The final thesis of the two myths: "To maintain a free and mature society we have to become aware of the tension between concern and freedom, and the necessity of preserving them both." In relating literature to this dialect, Mr. Frye ranges through the entire history of Western philosophy and literature--from Plato to Heidegger, from Sir Philip Sydney to Bob Dylan--showing us that his inquiring mind has once again gone beyond the field of literature, narrowly conceived, into the wider region of the history of ideas. He regards the artist and critic in generous terms--as persons not insulated from society but involved in it in the most profound sense and so provides a unique study informed by intelligence, broad learning, and grace and precision of style.

"Papers read at the formal inauguration, on October 27, 1966, of the Society for the Humanities." The knowledge of good and evil, by N. Frye.--Commitment and imagination, by S. Hampshire.--Politics and the morality of scholarship, by C. Cruise O''Brien.

The resources of an exceptional mind are brought to bear on questions of prime importance in modern life in this brief and penetrating book by one of North America''s leading scholars and thinkers. Northrop Frye presents a brilliant array of ideas and observations on the mythology of our day and its central elements, alienation and progress; the effects of technology on the structure of society; characteristics commonly associated with "modern"; anti-social attitudes in modern culture; the role of the arts in forming the contemporary imagination; and finally, the way in which the creative arts are absorbed into society through education. Everyone concerned with the sates of mind and quality of life distinctive to the modern world -- "where power and success express themselves to much in stentorian lying, hypnotized leadership, and panic-stricken suppression of freedom and criticism" -- will be grateful for this lucid, sane, and original discussion. -- Publisher.

In this outstanding collection of sixteen essays, the world-renowned critic and scholar discusses various works in the central tradition of English mythopoeic poetry, paying particular attention to the centrality of Romanticism.

Hundreds were turned away from these lectures given on the day of the installation of Dr. Claude Bissell as President of the University of Toronto. Professor Frye spoke on "Humanities in a New World"; Professor Kluckhohn on "The Scientific Study of Values"; and Professor V.B. Wigglesworth on "Science: Pure and Applied".

This fonds consists of an oral history interview with Chancellor H Northrop Frye conducted by Valerie Schatzker. Begins with his family background and early education continuing through to his perception of educational trends in the 1980s. Focusses on the period 1930-1980, and comments on the curricula, faculty and student activities in Victoria University. The Dept. of English at Victoria University and at University College, the Graduate Dept. of English, Emmanuel College and the federated colleges are also discussed, in addition to the Student Christian Movement, Merton College, Oxford University and fascism and education. Also included are several of his publications as well as a booklet from the Royal Bank of Canada presentation Dinner, at which Prof. Frye received the Royal Bank Award for 1978.