whatsup?erman Northrop Frye, CC, FRSC (July 14, 1912 ' January 23, 1991), a Canadian, was one of the most distinguished literary critics and literary theorists of the twentieth century.
Frye gained international fame with his first book, Fearful Symmetry, (1947), which led to the reinterpretation of the poetry of William Blake. His lasting reputation rests principally on the theory of literary criticism that he developed in Anatomy of Criticism (1959), one of the most important works of literary theory published in the twentieth century. American critic Harold Bloom commented at the time of its publication that Anatomy established Frye as “the foremost living student of Western literature.”[1] Frye's contributions to cultural and social criticism spanned a long career during which he earned widespread recognition and received many honours.Frye was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec but raised in Moncton, New Brunswick. He was the son of Herman Edward Frye and Catherine Maud Howard.[2] Frye came to Toronto to compete in a national typing contest in 1929.[3] He studied for his undergraduate degree at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He then studied theology at Emmanuel College (part of Victoria University). After a brief stint as a student minister in Saskatchewan, he was ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Canada. He then studied at Merton College, Oxford[4], before returning to Victoria College, where he spent the remainder of his professional career.The insights gained from his study of Blake set Frye on his critical path and shaped his contributions to literary criticism and theory. He was the first critic to postulate a systematic theory of criticism, “to work out,” in his own words, “a unified commentary on the theory of literary criticism” (Stubborn Structure 160). In so doing, he shaped the discipline of criticism. Inspired by his work on Blake, Frye developed and articulated his unified theory ten years after Fearful Symmetry, in the...