On the buildings scattered throughout U of T, you will find countless names adorning their signs (Robarts, and Rotman, to name a few). In spite of this alumnus’ name, anything beyond a general list of his literary achievements remains unknown. Hence collegiettes, let us get acquainted with this week’s HC Alumni Series celebrity: Northrop Frye.
Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec (born July 14, 1912) but raised in Moncton, New Brunswick, Frye was the third child of Herman Edward Frye and Catherine Maud Howard. He came to Toronto in 1929 to compete in a national typing contest. He later attended Victoria College and eventually studied theology at its constituent Emmanuel College. He then took up a position in Saskatchewan, and was subsequently ordained to the United Church of Canada until he returned to Victoria College to pursue his professional career.
The opportunity for fame arose for Frye when he re-introduced the works of William Blake to the world of literary criticism in his Anatomy of Criticism (1957) as he felt that the writer was misunderstood by the literary public.
He is also notable for his thoughts on imagination, and how literature is the “central and most important extension” of mythology. It is here that society finds and develops its imagination, and this in turn enables it to be “inherited, transmitted, and diversified”.
Frye identified the Canadian identity as having a “fear of nature, defined by the history of settlement and unquestioned adherence to the community”. Canadian literature was bound by the “garrison mentality”. The increasing urbanization of Canadian society was a viable solution to this problem as Frye believed writers would be able to finally remove themselves from such a close context to the idea of Canada that they were so comfortable with.
Interestingly enough, Northrop Frye’s involvement in the anti-Vietnam War movement, and his activism to end the South African apartheid made him a candidate for the intelligence service of the R.C.M.P. to spy on. Even without this sort of attention, Frye’s lecture halls were packed with students vying to get into his classes or even just to listen in on his literary perspectives.
Among his achievements include his election to the Royal Society of Canada in 1951, the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Toronto Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. He died January 3rd, 1991 at the age of 78 leaving behind a great literary legacy.
The Northrop Frye Centre and the Humanities Stream of the Vic One Program were named in his honour.
Courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Frye