This philosophic inquiry into fundamental problems of literature
and society is an immensely important addition to the canon of one
of America s most original and distinguished critics. What is the
function of poetry? Of criticism? In what sense does the poet
"know"? What is the relationship between a society and its art?
Northrop Frye conducts us on an illuminating survey of these and
other broad philosophic issues and offers many incidental insights
into specific cultural phenomena as well. Such matters as Marxist
aesthetics, Renaissance humanism, the relation of poetry to
religion, the idea of progress, and the challenge of our
contemporary youth culture are among the dozen interesting topics
that engage his attention along the way.
Mr. Frye identifies two predominating ideologies in Western
culture which he designates as the "myth of concern" and the "myth
of freedom." A fully developed myth of concern, he writes,
"compromises everything that it most concerns a society to know."
Its purpose is to hold society together, hence its deeply
conservative character. The "myth of freedom," on the other hand,
embodies the "liberal" attitudes of objectivity and respect for the
individual. The author traces the relative importance of these two
myths from Homeric Greece to the present, relating them to the
types of art and government they foster, the roles of the poet and
critic, and many other topics. The final thesis of the two myths:
"To maintain a free and mature society we have to become aware of
the tension between concern and freedom, and the necessity of
preserving them both."
In relating literature to this dialect, Mr. Frye ranges through
the entire history of Western philosophy and literature from Plato
to Heidegger, from Sir Philip Sydney to Bob Dylan showing us that
his inquiring mind has once again gone beyond the field of
literature, narrowly conceived, into the wider region of the
history of ideas. He regards the artist and critic in generous
terms as persons not insulated from society but involved in it in
the most profound sense and so provides a unique study informed by
intelligence, broad learning, and grace and precision of
style."
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