Thinking Activity : Northrop Frye :

Thinking Activity : Northrop Frye :

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This blog is about my academic task on Northrop Frye. This thinking Activity given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of English department.

Northrop Frye  : 

Northrop Frye was a well-known critic. His full name is Herman Northrop Frye. He was a Canadian educated and literary critic who wrote a lot on Canadian literature and culture and became known as one of the most important literary theorists of the 20th century. The present essay is taken from the book "Architecture of Literature." In the essay Frye analyzes critical literature against the background of rituals and religious fiction. It interprets literature in the light of various literature and legends. The fry has divided the smooth into three parts.

• The First deals with the concept of archetypal criticism. 

• The second of part throws light on the inductive method of analysis of a text. 

• The third part focuses on the deductive method of analysis. All the method fall under  structural criticism. 

Question : 1 What is Archetypal of Criticism? What does the Archetypal Critic do?

Archetype is the term of narrative creation, symbol, character, dream, collective images, legends, rituals and universal objects. The 'archetype of criticism' means repeated narrative design, and it probably creates images and patterns of another character and theme type in the literature. The archetypal critic seeks to find these patterns, symbols, and legends in current literary work.

Question : 2 What is Frye trying to prove by giving an analogy of 'Physics to Nature' and 'Criticism to Literature'.

Fry compares physics with nature, saying that criticism as science and literature is a matter of science. He also says that physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature. Frye criticizes literature by trying to prove physics for nature and by analogy. Basically here Frye tries to compare the two, as any physics student studies them primarily or rather physics rather than nature. So it is easy to make sense or ideas for the study of the nature of physics. While the other side of the comparison. We can say that criticism has a similar philosophy or strategy instead because it has a special way of studying literature.

Question : 3 Share your views of Criticism as an organised body of knowledge. Mention relation of literature with history and philosophy.

Literature is the central division of humanity, on the one hand through history and philosophy on the other. We can say that history and philosophy are two pillars of literature. History represents what happened in the past. Basically, history is about past events and actions. While philosophical education is about the morality and morality of life. Frye uses the word centrifugal to mean moving away from literature and gaining a background in understanding literature. So for the reader's understanding of literature the reference to the structure of history and philosophy is to the understanding of morality.

Question : 4 Briefly explain inductive method with illustration of Shakespeare's Hamlet's Grave Digger's scene.

The inspiring method is the journey that leads from specific to ordinary. We read certain literary works and come to general conclusions, thus extending from a certain result to a general result. An excellent example of this method is the scene of a serious digging from Hamlet, it is a typical scene, and from that scene we come to some general conclusions. In that scene there were two tomb diggers and he seemed to be quite consistent with his work. They used to talk to each other and sing at the digging of the tomb. They were also joking over the dead Ophelia and commenting on whether she allowed it or not. Here we can see that they have no regrets for a fatal person. It was his job and that's why they got used to it. It has become their normal task so that they have no feelings for the dead.

Question : 5 Briefly explain deductive method with reference to an analogy to Music, Painting, rhythm and pattern. Give examples of the outcome of deductive method.

The deductive method is a journey from ordinary to specific. Music and rhythm are both forms of art. Music is a form of art that moves over time and painting is a form of art that moves into space. The music is the rhythm and the painting is the pattern. In music we can understand its rhythm while in painting we can understand its pattern. Rhythm is a descriptive form, while the pattern is simultaneously in the mental grasp of the oral constitution and has meaning and significance. It provides mental vision. We can't get everything by listening to some music, but by looking at the painting we can get an idea of ​​its pattern.