Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Frye, Northrop
He was raised in Moncton, New Brunswick , and came to Toronto to compete in a typing contest. He studied at U of T and Oxford.
He first distinguished himself by writing an appraisal of the prophetic poetry of William Blake (until then considered by many to be incoherent). He expanded this and many of his other theories into his masterpiece, Anatomy of Criticism, positing that the universe consisted of the desired and the abhorred, the former expressed by comedy and romance, the latter by tragedy and irony.
His studies of the works of Spenser, Shakespeare , Blake, Yeats and Eliot have had a profound effect on Canadian thearico-academic thinking and the practice of theatre. University-level theatre students usually examine the Frye canon (including Northrop Frye on Shakespeare, 1986, winner of the Governor General's Award ).
Last updated 2009-04-01
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