“…Literature belongs to the world man constructs, not to the world he sees; to his home, not his environment.” (p.12)
I believe that Frye is implying that literature is something that uses concepts unique to humans, as opposed to concepts present in nature. For example, poems about natural phenomena, such as rain, snow or storms, usually talk about the mood or atmosphere they create and their effects on the human mind. Some poems may use metaphors and similes as methods of comparing these natural phenomena to more human concepts. For example, one might compare thunder to the wrath of God. Rarely, if ever, will you find a poem explaining the science behind the formation of rain. Otherwise, reading poetry would have a similar effect to that of reading a textbook and would not serve the same purpose it does today. Thus, when Northrop Frye says literature belongs to the world man constructs, I can only agree with him. Literature would not be literature if it took concepts, human or natural, and tried to describe them using science. As Frye tells earlier, literature is the language of imagination: about things that we wish would happen or wonder what would result if they did happen. It is used to describe the world that we create or carve out of the world we are given. The language of self-expression (or the technological language) however, would be the language that science uses to explain the world we see: our environment. Connections can be made between this idea and the ideas found in McCullough's speech on "The Love of Learning." In his speech, McCullough emphasizes that information and facts are never enough. Learning comes from synthesis and being able to take raw facts and apply them to a practical use. This can be paralleled to Frye's view that literature and imagination take the world we already have and concepts we want to have to create a utopia we wish to escape to. Both McCullough and Frye emphasize that the higher level of thinking required to look past what we are given (facts or our environment) and using them to create something we can use (ideas or plans for our future) is critical in any society.
You have some nice points and connections here Mark. I liked your first point that stated literature uses concepts unique to humans. I agree with you because when man creates literature he is using his imagination so it is part of the world he wants, so it must belong to the world he creates. Your connections between Frye's lecture and McCullough's speech is brilliant.
ReplyDelete-Brad
You are brave for tackling this quote and have some great ideas. I especially liked the part when you wrote that never in poetry would they describe the formation of rain using science because it would have the same effect as reading a textbook.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting that sometimes explanations using science about how things work (which in my opinion should hold the most interest for intellectuals) are often the ones that make us want to shut the textbook and fall asleep, while the simple poetic explanations for things often hold us captivated. Maybe instead of learning about condensation of water when we learn about rain, we should stick with the more romantic idea that raindrops are the tears of an angel.
kaela