Northrop Frye: The Archetypes of Literature

            Northrop Frye, in full Herman Northrop Frye, (born July 14, 1912, Sherbrooke, Que., Can.—died Jan. 23, 1991, Toronto, Ont.), Canadian educator and literary critic who wrote much on Canadian literature and culture and became best known as one of the most important literary theorists of the 20th century.
          Frye was educated at the University of Toronto, where he studied philosophy and then theology, and he was ordained a minister in the United Church of Canada in 1936. He then received a scholarship to do postgraduate work at Merton College, Oxford. He returned to Canada in 1939 and taught at Victoria College, University of Toronto. Frye became chairman of the English department there in 1952 and served as principal (1959–67) and chancellor (1978–91) of the college. He gave lectures and taught throughout the United States and Great Britain and around the world.
              In 1947 he published Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake, which was a sweeping and erudite study of Blake’s visionary symbolism and established the groundwork for his engagement with literary theory. In Anatomy of Criticism (1957) he challenged the hegemony of the New Criticism by emphasizing the modes and genres of literary texts. Rather than analyze the language of individual works of literature, as the New Critics did, Frye stressed the larger or deeper imaginative patterns from which all literary works are constructed and the recurring importance of literature’s underlying archetypes.
            In later works Frye supplemented the examination of archetype and genre with practical criticism; he studied T.S. Eliot (1963), John Milton’s epics (1965), Shakespearean comedy (1965) and tragedy (1967), and English Romanticism (1968). The Stubborn Structure: Essays on Criticism and Society appeared in 1970, and The Great Code: The Bible and Literature, a study of the mythology and structure of the Bible, was published in 1982. Frye’s other critical works—The Well-Tempered Critic (1963), The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance (1976), Northrop Frye on Shakespeare (1986), and Words with Power: Being a Second Study of “The Bible and Literature” (1990)—similarly emphasize symbols and group myths in literature and the systematic classification of literary symbols, genres, and criticism.    ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA 
 

1.   What is Archetypal Criticism? What does the archetypal critic do?

 ANS :-  Archetypal Criticism is which throws the light on all the connections of the past with the
  contemporary time and works.Archetypal it self means the original form of something which we can see in today's time and can make a bridge to understand that particular symbol, theme, character, images. Archetypal critic will see the all the human experiences which are connected through literature and this experiences are expressed again and again by using the same pattern through time and space.

     2. What is Frye trying prove by giving an analogy of ' Physics to Nature' and 'Criticism to Literature'?
   ANS :- To understand this theory of  'Physics to Nature' and 'Criticism to Literature' we have to look at the image which will help us to understand well.

                  Now, as we can see that Frye took four seasons and gave them archetype of comedic and tragic from the literature. then again he subdivided in two parts Comedy and Romance for the comedic; Tragedy and satire(or ironic) for the tragic.

•  Comedy is aligned with spring because the genre of comedy is characterized by the birth of the hero, revival and resurrection. Also, spring symbolizes the defeat of winter and darkness.

·        Romance and summer are paired together because summer is the culmination of life in the seasonal calendar, and the romance genre culminates with some sort of triumph, usually a marriage.

·        Autumn is the dying stage of the seasonal calendar, which parallels the tragedy genre because it is, (above all), known for the “fall” or demise of the protagonist.

·        Satire is metonymized[2] with winter on the grounds that satire is a “dark” genre. Satire is a disillusioned and mocking form of the three other genres. It is noted for its darkness, dissolution, the return of chaos, and the defeat of the heroic figure 

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

Ans :-  " Literature is central division of humanities flanked on one side by history and other side by philosophy."
 

these two are the most important point for literature because most of the literature is derived by some historical events and from philosophy the work of art gets idea.

  4. Briefly explain inductive method with illustration of Shakespeare's Hamlet's Grave Digger's scene
   Ans :- Inductive mathod ls taking one thing in centre and connecting it with many other things. if we take the example of gravedigger scene when Hamlet picks up man skull in his hand and wonders if that skull is of Alexandr or not. in this he connects his own time with the historical figure which we can look with the Inductive mathod.

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

Ans :- Deductive mathod means that connecting so many things in to one. like we can look at the sunset, when someone talks about sunset in a story we can interpret it in many way. it may be mean the actual sun which sets in the west in evening, it may be means ones life in going to end. it may be means that am opportunity is going from someone's hand a big loss in business.

we can take some music and rhymes also because many time music and rhyemr doesn't mean the same we can connect many things with is from the out side.

   6 .Refer to the Indian seasonal grid (below). If you can, please read small Gujarati or Hindi or English poem from the archetypal approach and apply Indian seasonal grid in the interpretation. 

Ans :- India has Seasons in 6 parts. which we call

1.Spring
2.Summer
3.Monsoon
4.Autumn
5.Pre-Winter
6.Winter

here is a poem which can be seen with the archetypal view.

ऋतुएं आती जाती हैं

जीवन का पाठ सिखाती हैं,

परिवर्तन ही जीवन है

बात ये हमें बताती हैं

ऋतुएं आती जाती हैं

जीवन का पाठ सिखाती हैं।

सबसे पहले बसंत जो आये

रंग बिरंगे फूल खिलाये

महका के सारी बगिया को

कुदरत अपने रंग दिखाए,

इसी तरह बन जाओ तुम भी

फिर हासिल कर सकते हो कुछ भी

हुनर को अपने काम में लाओ

फिर दुनिया में तुम छा जाओ,

जो सब के मन को भा जाए

वही विजय कहलाती है

ऋतुएं आती जाती हैं

जीवन का पाठ सिखाती हैं।

फिर है ऋतू बरखा की आती

धूप से मारों को है बचाती

करती है ये बात निराली

चारों ओर करे हरियाली,

जीवन में जब इसी तरह से

बुरा वक़्त कभी आता है

कोशिश कर लो तुम कितनी भी

लेकिन वो दूर न जाता है,

मिलती हैं खुशियाँ फिर इक दिन

मेहनत अपनी रंग लाती है

ऋतुएं आती जाती हैं

जीवन का पाठ सिखाती हैं।

सर्दियों का फिर आता मौसम

खुद को रखना पड़ता है गरम

चाहने से ये दूर न जाए

बचने का करना पड़ता उपाय,

मुसीबत जब कोई सिर पे पड़ी हो

मिलता न हो कोई हल

सबर और संतोष से फिर

अपना काटो तुम पल-पल,

परेशानी है दूर हो जाती

समय के साथ जब ये जाती है

ऋतुएं आती जाती हैं

जीवन का पाठ सिखाती हैं।

इसी सीख से अब तुम सब

जीवन अपना जिया करो

फल की इच्छा न करके

मेहनत तुम सब किया करो,

ऋतुओं की भांति है जीवन

कि ये ऋतुएं अपनी साथी हैं

ऋतुएं आती जाती हैं

जीवन का पाठ सिखाती हैं।

 in this poem we can see the archetypes of spring as something which relates with being something new in life and achieve your goals. then the season of heat comes which we have to overcome by doing things which are hard for us. and the season of monsoon tells us to stay calm and solve our problems with calm nature.