Frye’s Theory Of Cultural Criticism

Northropï¹'Frye is one of the most famous international literary theorists andcultural thinkers of Canada in the20thcentury. He is a productive writer, and many ofhis works and ideas are closely related to cultural criticism. He devoted his whole lifeto constructing his own unique theoretical system, in addition, his cultural criticismand cultural studies have played a very important role in the development of theinternational cultural theories. However, can we find out some signs of culturalstudies boom in the theory of Frye? What kind of profound connotation and creativemeanings are there in Frye’s theory of cultural criticism in such context ofcontemporary cultural studies? With such questions, this thesis tries to interpret thecultural criticism of Northropï¹'Frye with the myth as prototype and also tries toendow new theoretical explanation space for current literary criticism and culturalstudies. In the thesis the first chapter is preface which is a systematical introduction ofFrye ’s works and research status in the domestic and overseas, besides, on the basisof predecessors’ research results, it puts forward the point of this paper. The secondchapter of this thesis gives the source of cultural criticism theory. Besides, it exploreskinds of cultural origins presented in Frye’s cultural perspectives with the backgroundof western myth’s rise as a breakthrough point，such as: Spangler’s overall culturalviewpoint，Fraser’s concept of human culture, Jung’s psychology. However, the thesisfocuses on the discussion of various mythical dimensions and anthropological viewsin Frye’s unique cultural criticism and reveals that the formation of Frye’s uniquecultural critical system bases on the combination of western cultural thoughts. Thethird chapter discusses specifically the basic content of Frye’s cultural criticism theorywhich is two core concepts: the myth of care and the myth of freedom by inspectingthe social-cultural context during his theoretical formation. Besides, this part willprobe into the cultural containment and autonomy of literary criticism and excavatethe novelty and paradox in practice by analyzing the dialectical relationship betweenmyth of freedom and myth of care. The fourth chapter will expound the specifictheoretical characteristics of Frye’s cultural criticism on the basis of the abovediscussions broadly and interdisciplinary. The fifth chapter will explain the theoretical value of Frye’s cultural criticism. Also it will discuss the future development tendencyand research value of cultural criticism after clarifying his theoretical characteristics.The sixth chapter is the conclusion of the thesis, which presents the specialcontributions of Frye’s cultural criticism after analyzing the relationship betweencultural studies and cultural criticism.Frye’s cultural criticism theory pays more attention to theoretical interpretation.He brings Fraser’s literary anthropology and Jung’s psychology, cultural philosophy,symbolic philosophy, history, science research into the field of literature and culturalcriticism, with his broaden horizons and grand narrative and with myth as a startingpoint and the literary text as the center. Besides, with the myth as the center, heestablishes an interdisciplinary, macroscopic cultural criticism theory system. In hisspecific criticism practice, he owns positive attitudes and deep humanistic concerns.In addition, he achieves the goal of culture and its development involved in socialreality by interpreting literary features and analyzing the cultural phenomenon,keeping the balance between myth of freedom and myth of care.