Anatomy of Criticism Essay Questions

Describe the different modes.

A mode is the power of action of characters in a fiction. There are five modes, from most powerful to least: divine, romantic, high mimetic, low mimetic, and ironic. According to Frye, each mode also relates to particular historical periods. Historically, we have moved from the more powerful to the less powerful modes: from stories about gods to stories about scoundrels.

Describe the different kinds of symbols.

Frye orders the symbols according to what they refer to. A symbol that refers to the internal context of a story is a motif, whereas a sign refers to the real world through description. An image is a sign that also invokes feelings attached to it, and an archetype is an image that recurs across multiple works of literature. Finally, a monad refers to universal or spiritual meanings that transcend all of literature.

What is a myth?

A myth is a collection of archetypal images. That means it is a pattern of archetypes. Frye orders imagery into seven domains according to the Great Chain of Being. These are the divine, human, animal, vegetable, mineral, fire, and water imagery.

Describe the different “mythoi.”

A mythoi is a phase in the cycle of imagery. Frye notices that every domain of imagery has a life-cycle that corresponds to the four seasons. A mythoi is one of these seasons. The four mythoi are called comedy (spring), romance (summer), tragedy (autumn), and satire (winter).

What is the insight provided by the Greeks regarding genre?

According to Frye, the Greeks named three primary genres: drama, epic, and lyric. Frye thinks genre criticism has not progressed beyond the Greeks over two thousand years ago. He also disagrees that these are the three primary genres. But he agrees with the Greeks that genres should be identified according to how they are presented. For the Greeks, the division was into dramas, which were acted; epics, which were spoken; and lyrics, which were sung.

Describe the four different genres.

Frye identified genres according to the “radical of presentation,” the fundamental form in which a genre is intended to be communicated. Dramas, for instance, are primarily presented through actors; even if a drama is written down in a script, its radical of presentation is performance. The other genres are “epos” (all works of literature intended to be spoken out loud), lyrics (all works intended as a private address from the poet to another), and fictions (all works printed on paper).

Describe the different kinds of fiction.

A fiction is a work of literature printed on paper. Frye identifies four main subgenres, according to whether a fiction is introverted or extroverted and whether it is personal or intellectual. A romance is introverted and personal: that means it is subjective and about people. A confession is introverted and intellectual: that means it is subjective and about ideas. An anatomy is extroverted and intellectual: objective and about ideas. Finally, a novel is extroverted and personal: an objective fiction about people.

How is literary criticism like a science?

Literary criticism should be inductive, according to Frye. That means it derives general principles and categories of literature from reading literary texts themselves. This is like how a physicist derives the law of gravity from watching rocks fall. Each falling rock may be unique, but the general law organizing the fall belongs to a physical system. Similarly, unique works of literature still belong to a larger literary system.

What, according to Frye, is wrong with literary criticism in a tradition like Marxism or psychoanalysis?

These forms of literary criticism are too “deterministic.” That means that they refer the meaning of literature to something outside literature, such as class in a society or the repressed desires of the author. Instead, literary criticism should study literature from literature. It should derive general principles of literature from literary texts themselves.

Why is the study of symbols called ethical criticism?

Ethics, in Frye’s use, means anything related to society. Ethical criticism, then, is studying a work of literature in relation to society, including how a past society communicates with us today. Symbols are the means of this kind of communication, because they are not owned by a text but by a society from which a text comes. Symbols are the social aspect of literature.