Algebra
Algebra is neither difficult nor easy to the keen student, but to, say, the girl who has already decided on a life of bridge and Saturday shopping it is impenetrably obscure. She “can’t do” algebra because it has no place in her vision of life. Nevertheless the educational system mildly compels her at least to try a little algebra, because this is a democracy, and it is her right to be exposed to quadratic equations however little she wants them.
“Academy without Walls” (1961), Northrop Frye on Modern Culture (2003), CW, 11.
Alice in Wonderland
If I hadn’t had the Alice books at an early age, it would have been like a couple of front teeth missing!
“Literature in Education” (1979), Interviews with Northrop Frye (2008), CW, 24.
The principle is, if looking-glass reality is Alice’s dream why isn’t our reality the red king’s dream?
“New Fictional Formulas: Notebook 30o” (after 1965), 2, Northrop Frye’s Fiction and Miscellaneous Writings (2007), CW, 25.
In a slightly different but related area, one feels that Alice could hardly have held her Wonderland together if she had even reached the Menarche, much less become an adult.
“Second Variation: The Garden,” Words with Power: Being a Second Study of “The Bible and Literature” (1990), CW, 26.
I suppose the fascination with Alice is not that she’s a child in the state of innocence, but that she’s a preternatural child: what seven-year-old girls would have been like without the Fall.
Entry, Notebook 21 (1969–76), 558, Northrop Frye’s Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts (2003), CW, 13.
I’ve often said that if I understood the two Alice books I’d have very little left to understand about literature. Actually I think the Alice books, while they carry over, begin rather than sum up — a new twist to fiction that has to do with intellectual paradox & the disintegrating of the ego.
Entry, Notebook 24 (1970–72), 226, The “Third Book” Notebooks of Northrop Frye, 1964–1972: The Critical Comedy (2002), CW, 9.
Alien Beings
I think we have a feeling of being alienated and isolated by all that empty space and a need to populate it somehow with something which is humanly intelligible. Just as you have movies like Star Wars that talk about distant galaxies as being united by beings that look remarkably like Hollywood actors, so you have myths about unidentified flying objects that, again, tend to indicate that there is something way out there which is like ourselves.
“Between Paradise and Apocalypse” (1978), Interviews with Northrop Frye (2008), CW, 24.
The sheer bumptiousness of Carl Sagan & others who want to communicate with beings in other worlds amazes me. They should be saying: look, there are several billion Yahoos here robbing, murdering, torturing, exploiting, abusing & enslaving each other: they’re stupid, malicious, superstitious and obstinate. Would you like to look at the .0001 per cent of them who are roughly presentable?
Entry, Notebook 44 (1986–91), 425, Northrop Frye’s Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2000), CW, 5.
Alienation
We live in a world that got along without us for billions of years, and could still get along without us, in fact still may. When this fact penetrates the public consciousness, a kind of alienation develops.
“Criticism as Education” (1979), Northrop Frye’s Writings on Education (2001), CW, 7.
Alienation is minimal identity, a classical atom against the external world.
Entry, Notebook 54-8 (late 1972–77), 68, Northrop Frye’s Notebooks on Romance (2004), CW, 15.
Allegory
Allegorical interpretation, as a method of criticism, begins with the fact that allegory is a structural element in narrative: it has to be there, and is not added by critical interpretation alone. In fact, all commentary, or the relating of the events of a narrative to conceptual terminology, is in one sense allegorical interpretation.
“Allegory” (1965), “The Critical Path” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1963–1975 (2009), CW, 27.
We have allegory when one literary work is joined to another, or to a myth, by a certain interpretation of meaning rather than by structure.
“Myth, Fiction, and Displacement” (1961), “The Educated Imagination” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933–1963 (2006), CW, 21.
Alumni
There are now only two groups of people who have any really long-term and continuous relationship to the university: the alumni and the graduate students in the humanities working on their Ph.D.’s.
“Convocation Address, York University” (1969), Northrop Frye’s Writings on Education (2001), CW, 7.
Amateurism
… practically everybody confuses the merits of practising an art as a yoga with the objective merits of its products, sooner or later. That is, they want to give up their amateur standing as soon as possible. The irony of the situation is that if most writers of poetry & other dabblers would think entirely of the benefit to them & not at all of publication, the publishable merit of what they produce would be greatly & constantly increased.
Entry, Notebook 3 (1946–48), 57, Northrop Frye’s Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts (2003), CW, 13.
… he stands for a spirit no professional can do without: the spirit of painting for fun.
“Water-Colour Annual” (1944), Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
Ambiguity
So the term ambiguous, which is pejorative when applied to descriptive verbal structures, is an essential concept of literature.
“The Transferability of Literary Concepts” (1955), “The Educated Imagination” and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933–1963 (2006), CW, 21.
Americanism
I do not see how America can find its identity, much less avoid chaos, unless a massive citizens’ resistance develops which is opposed to exploitation and impersonality on the one hand, and to jack-booted radicalism on the other. It would not be a new movement, but simply the will of the people, the people as a genuine society strong enough to contain and dissolve all mobs. It would be based on a conception of freedom as the social expression of tolerance, and on the understanding that violence and lying cannot produce anything except more violence and more lies. It would be politically active, because democracy has to do with majority rule and not merely with enduring the tyranny of organized minorities. It would not be conservative or radical in its direction, but both at once.
“America: True or False?” (1969), Northrop Frye on Canada (2003), CW, 12.
It is a peculiarity of American social mythology that its mythology of the past largely contradicts its mythology of the present.
“Report on the ‘Adventures’ Readers” (1965), Northrop Frye’s Writings on Education (2001), CW, 7.
Americanization
I’m not greatly worried about what is called the Americanization of Canada. What people mean when they speak of Americanization has been just as lethal to American culture as it has been to Canadian culture. It’s a kind of levelling down which I think every concerned citizen of democracy should fight, whether he is a Canadian or an American.
“From Nationalism to Regionalism: The Maturing of Canadian Culture” (1980), Interviews with Northrop Frye (2008), CW, 24.
… when Canada was, in the stock phrase, “flooded with American programmes,” it was clear that the majority of Canadians