On The Theory Of FRY's Myth

In the 20th century, myth criticism reaches its height in the works of the famous Canadian critic Northrop Frye(1912-1991). Up till the present moment, the Chinese critics have not understood Frye's criticism deeply and completely. So on the basis of his theory of myth criticism, the thesis reviews Frye's theory completely and suggests that its academic value for China is that the critical thoughts of Frye could be used for reference to help the Chinese critics to construct their own theories of criticism.The thesis consists of six parts.Part one is the introduction of the thesis. It summarizes the achievements of Frye's theory and shows the theme of the thesis.Part two is "the critical path: from myth". It discusses the academic background of Frye's theory of myth criticism and the connotation of his conception "myth". Frye makes "myth" from being an object of anthropological or psychological study to a theory of criticism. On the basis of myth, "the critical path" of Frye is a balance between the study of the structure of literature and a turning outward to other cultural phenomena. It can also conquer the limitations of those so-called "determinism" and New Criticism. In Frye's view, myth is "an expression of man's concern about himself. In the primitive society, myth is mainly stories about gods. In more highly structured societies, they develop into two directions. In the first place, they develop into literature. In the second place, they develop into social myth.Part three "literature: the displaced myth" expounds Frye's theory of literary criticism and evaluates its academic accomplishments and limitations. It consists of three sections:Section one suggests that Frye combines and develops the "findings" of mythology (Frazer) and psychology (Jung) to form his own theory. In the context of literary criticism, myth is a structural element in literature, and literature as a whole is a "displaced" mythology. The literary shape comes only from literary tradition, and so ultimately from myth.Section two explains the literary system of Frye's theory and points out that it is cyclic and dialectical. Frye suggests that the story of the loss and regaining of identity is the framework of all literature and the most complete form of this story is given inthe Christian Bible. The Bible has a cyclic character and supplies structure for the western literature.Section three suggests that Frye's theory has overstepped New Criticism's authority and has a tendency of structuralism. But at the same time, myth criticism has some academic limitations: 1. Because of the excessive stress on archetype, myth critics tend to overlook the individual character of literature. 2. It is not suitable for all forms of literature, especially the realistic one. 3. It happens frequently that myth critics forget that literature is a kind of art and its aesthetic experience should be not neglected.Part four "culture: myth of concern" elaborates Frye's idea of cultural criticism. In 'modern century, the expression of myth is a culture. Human lives at the same time in two worlds: nature and culture. Facing these worlds, they have two attitudes: concern and freedom, and two mythologies: the myth of concern and the myth of freedom. Concern can be divided into two parts: the primary concern and the secondary concern. In the field of the second concern, myth develops into ideology. In Frye's view, myth expresses the primary concern of human beings', and it is the means of resisting ideology. Meanwhile, literature creates an "aesthetic Utopia" to show the ideal society that human desires.Part five "myth: China and the West" is the theoretical deepening of the thesis. It suggests that because of the differences between the western and the Chinese myth, Frye's myth criticism can not be directly utilized in the study of the Chinese literature. It also points out that its academic value for China is the critical thoughts of Frye.1. In the course of constructing our own theory of criticism, the firm stand and flexibility o...