On Northrop Frye And Anatomy Of Criticism

As a famous 20th century literary theorist and literary critic in Canada, Northrop Frye is a prolific critic and his works are of great influences on the fields of literary theory and literary critic of 20th century. The Anatomy of Criticism, published in 1957, represents the peak of literary criticism of Fry and has been regarded as an authoritative book ever written which established a synoptic view of the principles and techniques of archetypal criticism. The Anatomy of Criticism is also hailed as one of the most influential literary criticism and literary theory writings in West after World War II and has been recognized as the "modern classics" of European and American academics.The text attempts to analyze the main ideas of Fry and the Anatomy of Criticism and their impact of the criticism in order to discuss its status in the field of 20th century literary theorist and literary critic. The first chapter generally introduces Fry's life, sorts out his full lifetime of works and his main academic views on the reconstruction of literary criticism, cultural criticism, post-colonial criticism, and so on. The second chapter focuses on the authoritative book of archetypal criticism------Anatomy of Criticism, to make a comprehensive explanation of the theoretical system constructed on the principles and techniques which is implied in Anatomy of Criticism such as the independence of the criticism, the overall concept of literature, the development cycle theory and so on. The third chapter dissertates the close ties between Fry, his works and the Chinese academic from the following three parts: the translation of Fry's works in China; the discussions and practices about archetypal criticism of the Chinese scholars and the dissertations on Chinese literature and culture.Based on the comprehensive analysis and exposition of Frye and his Anatomy of Criticism, we can have a comprehensive understanding and evaluation of Fry and his book Anatomy of Criticism that have a significant impact on the academics to the 20th century theory and criticism.