MYTH, FICTION, AND DISPLACEMENT

NORTHROP FRYE

MYTH, FICTION, AND DISPLACEMENT

                                     Hermann Northrop Frye, a Canadian literary critic, and theorist was the most influential figure of Modern Literary Criticism. His best-known work ‘Anatomy of Criticism’ provides various theories, structures, and principles as well as approaches of literary criticism.

                                      His first important work was ‘Fearful Symmetry’ (1947) where he gave an interpretation of the mythology of William Blake.

                                   Frye’s wide-ranging interest in literature was matched by his own encyclopedic knowledge which made him profound. The most original work ‘Anatomy of Criticism’ (1957) is a correlation of various genres of literature with different phases of the mythology of the season through the ‘techniques of anthropology’ and ‘motifs of rebirth’. 

                                    Frye believes that Myth is a type of story wherein the main characters are gods and other beings possessing great potential than humans. It is a verbal art. Myth is often in narrative form and is passed from generation to generation proving a varied world of art. 

                                  Frye considers fiction as literature. So to understand myth in an easy way through literature displacement becomes necessary and with the displacement, the story can be grasped easily resulting into the development of a new perspective.