Assignment : literary Criticism

Name :Bharti Dharaiya

Roll No.: 3 

Topic : Northrop Frye : The archetypes of literature

Subject : Literary Criticism (paper no. 7)

Class : Sem - 2

Enrollment no.: 2069198420200008

Email ID: bhartidharaiya123@gmail.com

College : Department of English, Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

∆ The Archetypes of  Literature 

          An important foregoing of the literary theory of the archetype was the treatment of myth by a group of comparative anthropologists at the Cambridge University. At Cambridge University, especially James G. Frazer, whose The Golden Bough (1890-1915) identified elemental patterns of myth and ritual and that claimed for recur in the legends and ceremonials of diverse cultures and religions. An even more important foregoing was the depth psychology of Carl G. Jung(1875-1961), who applied the term “archetype” to what he called “primordial images”, the “psychic residue” of repeated patterns of experience in our very ancient ancestors. Then Northrop Frye wrote his essay "The Archetypes of Literature". 

∆ Introduction :

          

           The archetypes of literature by Northrop Frye. An Essay written by Northrop Frye. His Essay is  divided into three parts. ‘Archetypal Literary criticism’ is concerned with analyzing a text in concern to the myths and archetypes that could be in the text in the form of description, symbols, images, allusions, references, characteristic traits. This type of criticism appeared in the literary field in 1934 and the publication of Maud Bodkin’s ‘Archetypal Patterns in Poetry’.

           Archetypal Criticism earned  greatest popularity during the 1940s and 1950s.                                                 

           The main contributor of Archetypes literature popularity back then Northrop Frye became a Canadian literary critic. The field of archetypes has not seen much evolution since then and is not much in practice at present. However, it forms an important inclusion in the tradition of literary criticism.

∆ Northrop Frye :

            

               Herman Northrop Frye (July 14,1912 - January 23,1991). He was a Canadian. He was one of the most respectable literary critics and literary theorists of the twentieth century.    

           

               Northrop Frye was one of the academics, along with F. R. Leavis, I. A. Richards, William Empson and a few others who created the field of modern literary criticism in the English language. He is known for the scope of his work which included an architect of the field of literary criticism in Anatomy of Criticism as well as two major works on The Bible.

# First part of the essay

∆ What is Archetypal Criticism? 

          

             Then Northrop Frye applied the term Archetypes of literature. He gives a definition of Archetypes.

          

              Archetypal Criticism as it applies to literature is a form of criticism " that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes". 

      

               Archetype in literary criticism, a primordial image, characters or pattern of circumstances that recurs throughout literature and thought consistently enough to be considered a universal concept or situations

∆ Northrop Frye looks at the structural method and origin of the narrative.

             Northrop Frye looks at the structural method and origin of the narratives.  In the Structural method Frye analysis Novel, Narrative and play that give dream or a new structure to the Reader. So through the structural method novel, narrative and play create a new structure in the form of dreams. It is give new structure to novel like 

" The Beginning > The Middle > The end."

              In the novel, play and narrative, the beginning ,the middle and the end are very important parts. Northrop Frye uses structural methods and gives new structure to the text.

              If we think about the job of Archetypal critic then we find that they have to know about the various Archetypes and do note on how one writer used that specific Archetypes, in this literary work, How that is appropriate with the context of history and other text like novel, play ,drama etc.

               His views were not connected with anthropology and psychoanalysis as were those of Frazer and Jung critics. Frye shows no concern to the origin of the archetypes. Northrop Frye argues that archetypes make the concepts of the universe better understandable for human beings. The archetypes develop in manner conformity with ‘human needs and concerns’ which makes them proper for human life. For human life he gives genre and seasons to understand the archetypes literature.

∆ Genres and Seasons :

                                     

            According to Northrop  in the literary universe there are four radical mythoi (plot form or organizing structural principles) that are corresponding to the four seasons in the cycles of the natural world that are taken in the four major genres.

Frye tried to prove by giving an analogy of  "physics to nature" and "Criticisms to Literature". There are two basic categories in Frye’s criticism. Comedic and Tragic.

• Comedy  (spring)
• Romance  (summer) 
• Tragedy  (autumn)
• Satire  (winter)

              Northrop Frye has identified two major categories in the genre and seasons. The term comedic is subdivided into comedy and romance and another is tragic subdivided into tragedy and satire.  

   

              Northrop Frye has identified comedic and tragic and he has also identified a connection between various types of seasons and the different literary genres. For instance, he associates comedy to the season of spring, tragedy to autumn, satire with winter and romance to summer. He has also identified logic for this association.

   Northrop Frye identify Comedy is basically about the birth and revival of the hero as spring is symbolic of victory over winter. Tragedy is associated with the downfall of the protagonist like in Hamlet novel, Hamlet downfall as protagonist. Autumn suggests the death of the seasonal calendar. Satire depends on trick and is concerned with the insignificance of the hero. That is why it has been associated with winter, which symbolizes the absence of productivity. Similarly, summer refers to the conclusion of the seasonal calendar as romance usually ends with an achievement, romance is most commonly in the form of marriage.

             So here each season aligns with a literary genre. Each season symbolizes every season with a different genre.

∆ Archetypes per Genres :

            

              Northrop Frye also concerned a difference that a symbol is interpreted in connection with different genres. Frye identifies five different spheres: human, animal, vegetation, mineral and water.     

     

              While humans in comedy work for fulfillment of wishes, in tragedy it acts in an arbitrary way leading to downfall. Animals are gentle and pastoral in comedy while predatory in tragedy. Vegetation is represented by the formations like gardens, parks and flowers in the case of comics, in case of tragedy, it is present in the form of wild forest  land. Cities, temples, precious stones represent the mineral sphere in comedy which is represented by deserts, ruins and the like in case of tragedy.  While the sphere of water is present in the form of rivers in comedy, it appears as floods, seas.  

                So, the same spheres are to be interpreted in different ways and to the different effects in case of the comedic and the tragic works, respectively.

# Second part of the Essay

                The essay begins with The unity of work of art, the basis of structural analysis. The art is liberated from the writers. In the essay critics say the psychological things. 

                We inquire for the origin of genres and turn first of all the social conditions and Cultural demands which produce it. Important for literature is Gothic, Baroque, Romantic and the like are Cultural categories of little use of historians.

For example :

Mr. Auden's brilliant essays 

               " The Enchafed Flood "

                The Enchafed Flood shows the important symbols like the sea cannot remain within the poetry of Shelley. 

      

                In the second part of the essay Northrop Frye discusses the two methods in the  Archetypal criticism. He used two methods to prove his observation. He used "Inductive Method" and "Deductive Method". Inductive Method from observation to theory and from particular to general. The active method is from theory to particular observations and from general to particular.

 For example : Shakespeare's Hamlet's grave Digger's scene is an example of Inductive Method

         Deductive method from theory to particular observation and from general to particular observation. Deductive method with reference to an analogy of music, painting, rhythm and pattern. So, if we can see music where music moves in time, whether painting is presented in space. We listened to music and we found a rhythm. So here we "listen" to the narrative. We look at the painting and there is a found pattern. So here we "see" to mean.  So something is recurrence in music and painting.

# Third part of the Essay

                In the part of the essay, some arts move in time, like music: others are presented in space, like painting. Music means moving in time and giving a Rhythm. Painting means presented in space is a given pattern. Art something is recurrence in music and painting. In the art literature words are found in both music and time. 

                 

                   The crucial importance of this myth has been forced on literary critics by Jung and Frazer in particular, but the several books now available on it are not always systematic in their approach, for which reason I supply the following table of its phases 

1 .  The dawn, spring and birth phase. Myths of birth of the hero, the power of darkness, winter and death. 

2 .  The zenith, summer and marriage phase. Myths of apotheosis of the sacred marriage and of entering into paradise.

3 . The sunset, autumn and death phase. Myths of fall, of the dying god, of violent death and sacrifice and of the isolation of the hero.

4 . The darkness, winter and dissolution phase. Myths of triumph of these powers, myths of floods and the return of chaos of the defeat of the hero.

∆ Conclusion : 

                      Thus, conclude that essays by Northrop Frye try to apply archetypal in literature. Archetypal criticism is not a unifying category of

criticism but itself a part of a total form and its objective in literature. It is clear that criticism cannot be systematic unless there is a quality in literature. So Northrop Frye is trying to apply and use archetypal literature.

∆ Work citation:

• Dahiya, Anuj, and Anuj Dahiya. “The Archetypes of Literature - Northrop Frye.” UGC NET English, 23 Mar. 2016,

• “Eval(ez_write_tag([[468,60],'newworldencyclopedia_org-Box-2','ezslot_0',106,'0','0']));Northrop Frye.” Northrop Frye - New World Encyclopedia, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Northrop_Frye.

• Frye, Northrop. “The Archetypes of Literature: Kenyon Review Online.” The Kenyon Review,

• Dollimore, Johnathan and Sinfield, Alan, eds, Political Shakespeare : New Essay in Cultural Materialism (Manchester University Press, 2ndedn, 1994).