Northrop Frye and Others : Interpenetrating Visions

Robert D. Denham pursues his quest to uncover the links between Northrop Frye and writers and others who directly influenced his thinking but about whom he did not write an extensive commentary. The first chapter is about Frye's reading of Patanjali, the founder of the philosophy of Hindu yoga, while the second, discusses cultural mythographer Giambattista Vico, literary history and poetic language. The focus of Frye's criticism was the verbal arts, but he also had an abiding interest in both the visual arts and music; hence Frye's admiration of J.S. Bach. The essay on Tolkien examines the tendency in literary history to return from irony to myth, as well as the role that Tolkien played in Frye's fiction-writing fantasies. In subsequent chapters, Denham explores Frye's preference for romance and his critique of realism, which run parallel to the views of Oscar Wilde, and their strong shared convictions about the centripetal thrust of art, and about criticism being as creative as literature. Frye's appreciation for Whitehead's concept of interpenetration in Science in the Modern World became a key feature of Frye's speculations about the highest reaches of literature and religion. Frye is clearly indebted to Martin Buber, particularly his influential meditation I and Thou . Aristotle, an important influence upon Frye, was partially filtered through R.S. Crane and his The Languages of Criticism and the Structure of Poetry . Finally, the relationship between Frye and his Oxford tutor Edmund Blunden are explored, while the last is an essay on Frye and M.H. Abrams on how Frye's critical project might be viewed developed in Abrams's The Mirror and the Lamp . This book is published in English. - Robert D. Denham poursuit son examen d' crivains et autres influences qui ont marqu l' minent critique Northrop Frye, mais sur lesquels celui-ci n'avait pas consacr de r flexions tr s d velopp es. Le premier chapitre porte sur la lecture que fait Frye de Patanjali, le fondateur de la philosophie du yoga hindou, et le deuxi me, sur le mythographe culturel Giambattista Vico, l'histoire litt raire et le langage po tique. Frye s'int ressait aux arts visuels et la musique et Denham approfondit l'influence de J.S. Bach sur Frye. Le chapitre sur Tolkien porte sur la tendance en histoire litt raire de passer de l'ironie au mythe, mais aussi sur l'ascendant de Tolkien sur la fiction fantaisiste de Frye. Dans les chapitres suivants, Denham explore la pr f rence de Frye pour le romantique et sa critique du r alisme, qui trouvent cho chez Oscar Wilde, de m me que leur conviction, partag e, de l'importance de l'art, et de la critique comme tant aussi cr ative que la litt rature. L'admiration de Frye pour le concept d'interp n tration pr sent dans le Science in the Modern World de Whitehead est devenue un l ment cl des r flexions de Frye sur la port e de la litt rature et de la religion. Denham explore aussi le lien entre Frye et Martin Buber, dont la m ditation I and Thou l'a beaucoup inspir , et celui entre Frye et R.S. Crane, qui parle beaucoup d'Aristote dans son ouvrage The Languages of Criticism and the Structure of Poetry . Le chapitre 9 explore la relation entre Frye et son tuteur d'Oxford, Edmund Blunden, alors que le dernier chapitre porte sur Frye et M.H. Abrams, et notamment sur le projet critique de Frye compris la lumi re du cadre sur la th orie critique d velopp par Abrams dans The Mirror and the Lamp . Ce livre est publi en anglais.