The Secular Scripture and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1976-1991
2nd Edition
Published on 1. July 2006
Book
Hardback
625 pages
978-0-8020-3945-3 (ISBN)
Description
Northrop Frye's The Secular Scripture was first published in 1976 and was soon recognized as one of his most influential works, reflecting an extensive development of Frye's thoughts about romance as a literary form. This new edition in the Collected Works of Northrop Frye series brings The Secular Scripture together with thirty shorter pieces pertaining to literary theory and criticism from the last fifteen years of Frye's life.
Frye's study illuminates the enduring attraction and deep human significance of the romance genre in all its forms. He provides a unique perspective on popular fiction and culture and shows how romance forms have, by their very structural and conventional features, an ability to address both specific social concerns and deep and fundamental human concerns that span time and place. In distinguishing popular from elite culture, Frye insists that they are both ultimately two aspects of the same "human compulsion to create in the face of chaos." The additional late writings reflect Frye's sense at the time that he was working "toward some kind of final statement," which eventually saw the light of day, only months before his death, as Words with Power (1990).
Frye's study illuminates the enduring attraction and deep human significance of the romance genre in all its forms. He provides a unique perspective on popular fiction and culture and shows how romance forms have, by their very structural and conventional features, an ability to address both specific social concerns and deep and fundamental human concerns that span time and place. In distinguishing popular from elite culture, Frye insists that they are both ultimately two aspects of the same "human compulsion to create in the face of chaos." The additional late writings reflect Frye's sense at the time that he was working "toward some kind of final statement," which eventually saw the light of day, only months before his death, as Words with Power (1990).
More details
Series
Edition
2nd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
1080 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8020-3945-3 (9780802039453)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Northrop Frye (1912-1991) was one of the twentieth century's most influential English scholars and literary critics. Northrop Frye was a professor in the Department of English at Victoria University in the University of Toronto from 1939 until his death. His works include Words with Power and Anatomy of Criticism.
Joseph Adamson is a professor in the Department of English and the Comparative Literature Program at McMaster University.
Jean Wilson is an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics and the Comparative Literature Program at McMaster University.
Joseph Adamson is a professor in the Department of English and the Comparative Literature Program at McMaster University.
Jean Wilson is an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics and the Comparative Literature Program at McMaster University.
Content
Preface
Credits and Sources
Abbreviations
Introduction
The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance
The Word and World of Man
The Context of Romance
Our Lady of Pain: Heroes and Heroines of Romance
The Bottomless Dream: Themes of Descent
Quis Hic Locus? Themes of Ascent
The Recovery of Myth
Romance as Masque
Letter to the Editor of Parabola
The Responsibilities of the Critic
Comment on Peter Hughes's Essay
Literature, History, and Language
On Translation
Extracts from The Practical Imagination: Stories, Poems, Plays
Vision and Cosmos
Literature as a Critique of Pure Reason
Approaching the Lyric
The Survival of Eros in Poetry
The Ouroboros
Literary and Linguistic Scholarship in a Postliterate World
The End of History
Myth as the Matrix of Literature
The KoinE of Myth: Myth as a Universally Intelligible Language
The Symbol as a Medium of Exchange
The Expanding World of Metaphor
Extracts from The Harper Handbook to Literature
Letter to the Editor of PMLA
Lacan and the Full Word
Literature and the Visual Arts
The Journey as Metaphor
Framework and Assumption
Maps and Territories
Epilogo
Auguries of Experience
Literary and Mechanical Models
Literature as Therapy
Response to Papers on "Northrop Frye and Eighteenth-Century Literature"
Notes
Emendations
Index
Credits and Sources
Abbreviations
Introduction
The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance
The Word and World of Man
The Context of Romance
Our Lady of Pain: Heroes and Heroines of Romance
The Bottomless Dream: Themes of Descent
Quis Hic Locus? Themes of Ascent
The Recovery of Myth
Romance as Masque
Letter to the Editor of Parabola
The Responsibilities of the Critic
Comment on Peter Hughes's Essay
Literature, History, and Language
On Translation
Extracts from The Practical Imagination: Stories, Poems, Plays
Vision and Cosmos
Literature as a Critique of Pure Reason
Approaching the Lyric
The Survival of Eros in Poetry
The Ouroboros
Literary and Linguistic Scholarship in a Postliterate World
The End of History
Myth as the Matrix of Literature
The KoinE of Myth: Myth as a Universally Intelligible Language
The Symbol as a Medium of Exchange
The Expanding World of Metaphor
Extracts from The Harper Handbook to Literature
Letter to the Editor of PMLA
Lacan and the Full Word
Literature and the Visual Arts
The Journey as Metaphor
Framework and Assumption
Maps and Territories
Epilogo
Auguries of Experience
Literary and Mechanical Models
Literature as Therapy
Response to Papers on "Northrop Frye and Eighteenth-Century Literature"
Notes
Emendations
Index