Even the casual reader will notice a strong preoccupation with religion in the work of Northrop Frye. In his latest book, however, the esteemed Frye scholar Robert Denham shows that it played a far greater role than has been assumedreligion was in fact central to practically everything Frye wrote. Denhams focus shifts the emphasis from Anatomy of Criticism, Fryes most famous work, and places it on those works with which Frye began and ended his careerthe early Fearful Symmetry and, fifty years later, his two studies of the Bible and The Double Vision. This reevaluation is based on a close examination of Fryes religiously charged language and aided by Denhams remarkable and unique access to Fryes notebooks. The notebooks contents not only expand on ideas laid out in Fryes published works but also touch on subjects most readers would not associate with Frye, such as his wide reading in both Eastern religious texts and in esoteric traditions ranging from astrology to the Cabala. Denham does not attempt to distill a theology from Fryes work; rather, he seeks to trace the movement of Fryes thought, demonstrating the imaginative use to which he put his wide-ranging reading. The result is a pivotal work, redefining our understanding of one of the most important humanists of the twentieth century.
- | Author: Robert D. Denham
- | Publisher: University of Virginia Press
- | Publication Date: January 10, 2005
- | Number of Pages: 390 pages
- | Language: English
- | Binding: Hardcover
- | ISBN-10: 0813922992
- | ISBN-13: 9780813922997
