The Future of Northrop Frye: Centennial Perspectives (From the Vault: UTQ Special Collections)

This special collection, edited by Germaine Warkentin and Linda Hutcheon, celebrates the centennial of the birth of Northrop Frye. Projecting forward instead of back, the articles in this volume look to the future of Frye's ideas in the critical climate of the twenty-first century. The publication of Frye's Collected Works has brought about a serious reconsideration of his criticism and how it speaks to the futureand not just that of literary studies. The ideas within explore the Frye canon afresh to reflect on what critics of today find challenging, provocative, and productive in the rich record of Frye's criticism.This volume contains supplemental material, including the watercolour portrait of Northrop Frye, painted by Canadian artist Jeffrey Sprang, a graduate of Victoria College and one of Frye's former students.The authors featured in this collection discuss various aspects of Frye's work and teaching. Frye, whose influence extends beyond literary criticism, was more interested in music than literature in his youth. Yves-Saint Cyr's article explores this interest, suggesting Frye's relationship with music is an arc that passes through all of his major fields of study: literature, religion, visual arts, culture, pedagogy, and educational psychology.At the heart of the volume lie three contributions not to be missed by any enthusiast of the Canadian canon: (1) a previously unpublished essay that Frye wrote on the history of poetic diction, which serves as a prime example of his close reading; (2) a series of poems by nine contemporary Canadian poets A.F. Moritz, John Reibetanz, Lorna Crozier, Jan Zwicky, Serge Patrice Thibodeau, George Elliott Clark, Dennis Lee, Robert Bringhurst, and Ward McBurney conceived in his memory but dedicated to his future; and (3) Professor Nick Mount's interview with Canadian literary icon Margaret Atwood, once a student of Frye's, who shares her thoughts on her former teacher: ideas they shared and didn't share, his influence on her and her generation, and his legacy today.

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