Anatomy of Criticism

Anatomy of Criticism is a landmark work of literary theory by Northrop Frye, a Canadian scholar who had previously written Fearful Symmetry (1947), a study of William Blake's poetry. Frye presents the book as an experiment in "pure critical theory" (xix), offering four interconnected essays that propose a systematic, comprehensive framework for understanding literature. The project grew out of an abandoned introduction to Spenser's Faerie Queene that expanded into an independent theoretical work, drawing on lectures delivered at Princeton University in 1954.

In his Polemical Introduction, Frye argues that literary criticism must be recognized as an autonomous discipline with its own conceptual framework, comparable in its systematic character to a science. He rejects the view that the critic is a parasite on the creative artist, contending that poetry is a disinterested use of words that does not directly address a reader, and therefore an independent structure of thought is needed to interpret it. He dismisses what he calls determinism in criticism: the subordination of literary study to frameworks imported from outside literature, whether Marxist, Freudian, Thomist, or existentialist. The axioms of criticism, he argues, must grow out of literature itself. He further contends that subjective value-judgments cannot serve as the foundation of systematic study, and calls for criticism to make an inductive leap analogous to the development of the natural sciences, moving from naive cataloguing of literary masterpieces to the discovery of organizing principles that explain them.

The First Essay, "Historical Criticism: Theory of Modes," classifies fictional literature according to the hero's power of action, drawing on Aristotle's observation in the Poetics that characters may be better than, worse than, or equal to ordinary people. Frye identifies five modes: myth, in which the hero is a divine being; romance, in which the hero is human but moves in a world of marvels; high mimetic, in which the hero is a leader subject to nature, as in epic and tragedy; low mimetic, in which the hero is on the reader's own level, as in realistic fiction; and ironic, in which the hero is inferior in power or intelligence to the reader. Western literature, he argues, has progressively shifted down this sequence, from pre-medieval myth through medieval romance and Renaissance high mimetic to the low mimetic realism dominant from Defoe onward, and finally to the ironic mode of modern serious fiction. These modes operate differently in tragic patterns, where the hero becomes isolated from society, and comic patterns, where the hero is integrated into society. Frye argues that the five modes form a cycle: At the extreme of irony, literature begins to circle back toward myth, as visible in writers like Kafka and Joyce. He also introduces a parallel distinction between fictional literature, where the primary interest is in plot, and thematic literature, where the primary interest is in ideas. He traces how each mode produces characteristic episodic forms, in which the poet speaks as an individual, and encyclopaedic forms, in which the poet functions as a social spokesman, ranging from oracles and scripture in the mythical mode to the transient epiphanies and discontinuous structures of the ironic mode.

The Second Essay, "Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols," establishes that literary works possess multiple levels of meaning and identifies five phases of symbolism. In the literal phase, a symbol functions as a motif within the verbal structure, and literal meaning is redefined as understanding the whole poem as a poem. In the descriptive phase, the symbol functions as a sign pointing to something external. In the formal phase, it functions as an image, an analogy between the poem and the nature it imitates; here Frye argues that a poet's intention is directed toward making the work, not toward conveying a separable message. In the archetypal phase, the symbol functions as a recurring image connecting one poem with another, making literature a communicable social fact. In the final anagogic phase, the symbol functions as a monad: Each poem becomes a microcosm of all literature, and everything is potentially identical with everything else through the radical metaphorical form "A is B." Frye insists that this literary universe remains distinct from any religious or existential claim.

The Third Essay, "Archetypal Criticism: Theory of Myths," is the longest and most elaborate. Frye proposes the Bible and Classical mythology as "a grammar of literary archetypes" (135) and introduces the concept of displacement, the adaptation of myth and metaphor to canons of morality or plausibility. He maps literary imagery between two undisplaced extremes, meaning mythic imagery presented without adaptation to realism: apocalyptic imagery, the symbolic world of human desire (the city, the garden, the sheepfold), and demonic imagery, the nightmare world of bondage and the scapegoat. Between these poles lie three intermediate structures corresponding to the romance, high mimetic, and low mimetic modes. He then identifies four archetypal narrative patterns, or mythoi, corresponding to the four seasons. Comedy (spring) moves toward a new, freer society. Romance (summer) centers on the quest, with conflict, death-struggle, and recognition as its stages. Tragedy (autumn) presents the hero's fall, manifesting the supremacy of natural law. Irony and satire (winter) function as parodies of romance. Frye traces six phases within each mythos and argues they form a continuous cycle.

The Fourth Essay, "Rhetorical Criticism: Theory of Genres," derives genre from what Frye calls the radical of presentation: drama (words acted before a spectator), epos (words spoken to a listener), fiction (words written for a reader), and lyric (the poet's utterance overheard). He analyzes each genre's distinctive rhythm and surveys specific forms within each. In prose fiction, he identifies four distinct forms: the novel, the romance, the confession, and the anatomy (or Menippean satire), a form dealing with ideas through caricature and encyclopaedic erudition, exemplified by Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy and Swift. He shows how major works like Joyce's Ulysses combine all four. In encyclopaedic forms, he argues that the Bible is the definitive example, a single archetypal structure extending from creation to apocalypse.

In a Tentative Conclusion, Frye reflects on the broader cultural implications of his framework. He insists that while art does not evolve or improve, the comprehension of art does. He proposes that the ethical purpose of liberal education is to liberate, making one capable of conceiving society as free and classless. Since no such society exists, liberal education must be deeply concerned with works of imagination. He draws an analogy between literature and mathematics, suggesting that literary myths and metaphors may be the constructive principles informing all verbal structures, just as mathematics informs the natural sciences. He closes by invoking Joyce's "ideal reader suffering from an ideal insomnia" (354) as the figure of the critic, whose task is to reforge "the broken links between creation and knowledge, art and science, myth and concept" (354).