| Critically examining the work of Northrop Frye, this thesis argues that Frye claims omni-competence for literary theory by giving it the work of epistemology, ontology and ethics. The reach of these claims effectively transforms literary criticism into a meta-theory, one that not only relies profoundly on the thought of William Blake, but is also influenced by the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The first two chapters trace the influence of important precedents set by Blake and Kant on Frye's work, and examine the implications of his departure from Kant, which centre around Frye's Blakean insistence on a hierarchically privileged position for the imagination. This insistence is probed in the final chapter, which ends with the Kantian charge that Frye's meta-theory for literature ultimately risks working against, rather than towards progress in society because it depends on hierarchical distinctions and represents an uncritical commitment the imagination. |
