Words with Power: Being a Second Study of The Bible as Literature

Argues that all mythologies are transmitted and diversified by literature, and discusses the social function of literature and the role of metaphor

The Bible is saturated with myth and metaphor, writes Frye. In this sequel to The Great Code: The Bible and Literature , the eminent critic places biblical imagery and narrative structure within the framework of Western literature. He traces Jacob's dream of the ladder (Genesis 28) back to ancient Near Eastern religions, and forward to T. S. Eliot. He reads Moby Dick as a modern reworking of the Bible's leviathan symbolism. He interprets the Tower of Babel as "a cyclical symbol, an example of the rising and falling of great kingdoms," with parallels in Joyce's Finnegans Wake. The first half of this tremendously rich study lays a theoretical groundwork that will interest mainly specialists; the second half delves deeply into biblical stories and metaphors, illuminating their meanings for our time and catching their echoes in Shakespeare, Dante, Shelley, Yeats, Spenser, Eliot and Verlaine.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In his introduction to The Great Code ( LJ 6/1/82), Frye promised a sequel to his work on "the Bible and literature." Here is the promised volume, though it is not an entirely new book. In Part 1, Frye restates his critical position, his structural principle: the identity of mythology and literature. In Part 2, he focuses on specific mythological themes (mountain, garden, cave, furnace) that are variations of the cosmic axis mundi image. Throughout, he demonstrates his interest in the mythological structures that inform literature, including the Bible, instead of simply the literary characteristics of the Bible. While it is undeniable that myths often serve as structuring elements in the Bible, occasionally Frye allows myth criticism to overwhelm the text rather than shed light upon it. Thus there is the risk of forcing the text into the pre-established structure. This aside, there is enlightenment available for readers willing to work through it. Recommended.
- Craig W. Beard, Har ding Univ. Lib., Searcy, Ark.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.