Northrop Frye's Archetypes of Literature

This post is in response to the questions asked here

1) Archetypal criticism aims at establishing a unified body of literature by studying the recurrent signs and symbols of literary texts, i.e Archetypes, from which the theory derives its name. In critical study, an archetype denotes all those images, plots, techniques, etc, which are used in literary compositions through the ages and have thus helped in the shaping of the individual's perspective towards literary texts.

2)  Northrop Frye's Archetypes of Literature, provided a structural study of literature and its recurrent themes, techniques, symbols, etc in order to establish "literature as an organized body of knowledge and to distinguish it from its study i.e criticism". Just as Physics is the study of nature, criticism is the study of literature. However, one can't possibly 'learn literature'. And therefore through this analogy Frye tries to prove that in order to establish literature as an organized body of knowledge, criticism should be treated as a science and subsequently be separated from literature. Hence criticism should be treated as an individual branch of knowledge, just as Physics, and not as a sub topic of literary studies as it is often considered.

3) It is quite convincing when Frye argues that students often feel a centrifugal force when it comes to criticism because of pseudo propositions and in order to change this, it is necessary for criticism to be established as an body of knowledge. It is often observed that while analysing a work of art, a critic has to rely on either historical evidence and facts, or on philosophical truths. Thus the individuality and potentiality of the literary or artistic work is questioned. Frye points out that in order to establish criticism as an organized and individual field of knowledge, it is necessary for the critic to focus on the work in question, rejecting and ignoring all the other influences in the process. Literature, to a certain extent combines the elements of history and philosophy. It includes ideas as well as facts.

4) The inductive method, to put it in Frye's words is the process of 'backing up'. In order to come up with a general inference which defines one's argument, one needs to back up from all the particular instances. Let's take the grave digger's scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet into consideration for this explanation. The closest look on the scene would reveal what Frye calls 'an intricate verbal texture' filled with the puns of the first clown and the reflection of the danse macabre in the Yorick soliloquy of Hamlet. If we take one step back from this position the scene would reveal what the critics like Wilson Knight have argued the scene reflects corruption and decay in the socio-political scenario of the times. One more step back and we will find the dramatic context of the scene i.e the Elizabethan audience's love for sensational scenes. The last step back would reveal the archetype of the Liebestod hero, sacrificing himself for his beloved.

5) The deductive method in some sense resembles the application of a theory to analyze a work of art. It is the process of going from particular to general. Frye explains this method through the examples of music and painting. Just as music some arts move in time whereas others move in space like painting. The 'organizing principle', to put in Frye's words, in both the cases is 'recurrence', which, when it comes to temporal arts is called rhythm and for spacial arts is called pattern. Literature, in Frye's opinion seems to intermediate between the temporal and spatial as it combines the elements of both. The rhythm of literature can be the narrative whereas the pattern can be the simultaneous mental grasp of meaning and significance. The rhythm or narrative in literature is derived from the natural cycle surrounding human life whereas the patterns of imagery or the mental grasp in Frye's opinion are oracular in origin and derive from epiphanic moments. This process ultimately establishes myth as the 'central informing power' which gives archetypal significance to the ritual and archetypal narrative to the oracle. Thus Frye establishes myth as the archetype. This myth constructs a story out of the solar cycle of the day, seasonal cycle of the year and organic cycle of  human life, around a figure who is partly the sun, partly vegetative fertility and partly a God or archetypal human being.

The deductive method provides us the four phases of the myth. Beginning from the birth to the death phase with the natural cycles and symbols associated with it. This also helps Frye to distinguish how these phases are used in the genres of tragedy and comedy.

6) The Indian seasonal cycle is divided in to winter, summer and monsoon, with each season further subdivided into two phases.

This grid is not only the base for literary practice but also a portrayal of the Indian life cycle, with its recommendations of necessities to adapt to the surrounding season and climate. the literary works are most of the time created keeping this in mind. Especially the classical ones.

Literature & Religion:

Religion, and in that case any social institution, relies on literature for promoting and propagating its ideology. In order to reach a large number of people, religion constructs a narrative, which, as time goes on, is documented in the form of a scripture or a "Myth". Now this myth, according to Frye, is the archetype; containing all the recurring socio-culturally accepted symbols of a culture or society. However, because of people's blind faith and sentimental attachment towards religion, they tend to accept the religious narratives as ultimate truths. This is where the literary critic finds a problem. As Frye mentions,"God for the critic, whether he finds him in 'Paradise Lost' or 'The Bible', is a character in a human story; and for the critic all epiphanies are explained, not in terms of the riddle of a possessing god or devil, but as mental phenomena closely associated in their origin with dreams." Thus, whenever these religious narratives are altered or rewritten by authors or poets to reflect the zeitgeist or to comment on it, people consider them atheistic or 'bad'. Today, among the rising misconceptions as well as misinterpretation of religious texts and narratives, Frye's opinion and idea  on the relationship of literature and religion is crucial to take note of. 

Click here to read the poem Kal Aur Aaj by Nagarjuna   

It is interesting how Nagarjuna is able to portray the emotions before and after the beginning of the monsoon season. A close look at the poem would reveal how he uses the animal world for both tragic and comic visions of monsoon to put it in Frye's terms. It provides a good example of archetypal usage in the Indian context.