Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton Classics, 69) - Softcover

Frye, Northrop

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691202567 ISBN 13: 9780691202563

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2020

Synopsis

A landmark work of literary criticism

Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism is the magnum opus of one of the most important and influential literary theorists of the twentieth century. Breaking with the practice of close reading of individual texts, Frye seeks to describe a common basis for understanding the full range of literary forms by examining archetypes, genres, poetic language, and the relations among the text, the reader, and society. Using a dazzling array of examples, he argues that understanding "the structure of literature as a total form" also allows us to see the profoundly liberating effect literature can have.

About this title

About the Author:

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) was University Professor at the University of Toronto, where he was also professor of English at Victoria College. His books include Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (Princeton). David Damrosch is the Ernest Bernbaum Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature and director of the Institute for World Literature at Harvard University.

Review:

"Simply overpowering in the originality of its main concepts, and dazzling in the brilliance of its applications of them. Here is a book fundamental enough to be entitled Principia Critica."―Commonweal

"Does literary criticism need a conceptual universe of its own? Professor Frye has written a brilliantly suggestive and encyclopedically erudite book to prove that it does; and he has done his impressive best to provide a framework for this universe. His book is a signal achievement."―Hudson Review

"The book is continuously informed by original and incisive thought, by fine perception, and by striking observations upon literature in general and upon particular works."―Modern Language Review

"Brilliant. . . . Frye has wit, style, audacity, immense learning, [and] a gift for opening up new and unexpected perspectives in the study of literature."―The Nation

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0691202567
• ISBN 13: 9780691202563
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 408
• Editor: Damrosch David