Thinking Activity : Northrop Frye

NORTHROP FRYE AND THE ARCHETYPES OF LITERATURE
LITERATURE AND RELIGION : RITUALS , MYTHS AND ARCHETYPES OF LITERATURE

Hello Reader's

welcome to my blog, Today's blog is about Northrope Frye and his essay The Archetypes of Literature .

              Herman Northrop Frye was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist ,considered as one of the most influential critics of the 20th century.Frye gained international fame with his first book, Fearful Symmetry (1947), which led to the reinterpretation of the poetry of William Blake. His lasting reputation rests principally on the theory of literary criticism that he developed in Anatomy of Criticism (1957), one of the most important works of literary theory published in the twentieth century. The American critic Harold Bloom commented at the time of its publication that Anatomy established Frye as "the foremost living student of Western literature." Frye's contributions to cultural and social criticism spanned a long career during which he earned widespread recognition and received many honors.

1} WHAT IS ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM ? WHAT DOES ARCHETYPAL CRITIC DO ?

         

                       The word archetype means , an universal pattern of thought , present in an individuals unconscious , inherited from the past collective experience of humanity. Archetypes are tools used in literature to present common aspects of human nature and life in general.Northrop Frye in his remarkable book ANATOMY OF CRITICISM , he developed the archetypal approach into a radical and comprehensive revision of traditional grounds both in the theory of literature and the practice of literary criticism.It was MAUD DODKIN's ARCHETYPAL PATTERNS IN POETRY who was given a boost and flourished the archetypal literary criticism during 1950 and 1960. Apart from him there were critics , G. WILSON KNIGHT, ROBERT GRAVES, PHILIP WHEELWRIGHT, RICHARD CAMPBELL who all emphasized the occurrence of mythical patterns in literature , on the assumption that myths are closest to the element archetype than the artful manipulation of sophisticated writers. Bodkin in his book applied Jung's theories about the collective unconscious , archetypes and primordial images to literature but Frye,s work helped displace new criticism as the major mode of analyzing literary texts.There are two basic categories in Frye's framework : COMEDIC and TRAGIC . Each category is further subdivided into two categories : COMEDY and ROMANCE for the comedic , tragedy and satire /ironic for the tragic.Frye uses the seasons in his archetypal schema. Each season is aligned with a literary genre: 

COMEDY - SPRING 

ROMANCE - SUMMER 

TRAGEDY - AUTUMN 

SATIRE -  WINTER 

Frye outlined five different spheres in his schema;

HUMAN : 

The comedic human world is representative of wish -fulfilment and being community centered . In contrast the tragic realm  human world is of isolation , tyranny and the fallen hero.

ANIMAL:

In the comedic genre animals are docile and pastoral while in tragic realm animals are predatory and hunters.

VEGETARIAN :

                 For the realm of vegetation the comedic is again pastoral but also represented by gardens , parks, roses and lotuses. and in tragic wild forest as being barren.

MINERAL : 

                Cities , temples, or precious stones represent the comedic mineral realm while the tragic mineral realm is noted for being a desert , ruins or sinister geometric images .

WATER : 

                Rivers represents in the comedic realm while in tragic the seas , specially floods .

             

ARCHETYPES DIVIDED INTO TWO CATEGORIES :

1] CHARACTERS 

2] SITUATIONS / SYMBOLS 

1] CHARACTERS :

👉THE HERO : 

                       

                         The courageous figure , the one who is always running in and saving the day . Hamlet, Charles Dickens Pip. 

👉THE OUTCAST  :

                          The out cast is just that, he or she has been cast out of society or has left it on a voluntary basis , the outcast figure can oftentimes also be considered as a christ figure.

👉 THE SCAPEGOAT : 

                                The scapegoat figure is the one who gets blamed for everything , regardless of whether he or she is actually at fault. Monster in Victor Frankenstein. 

👉THE STAR- CROSSED LOVERS :

                              This is the young couple joined by love but unexpectedly parted by fate. Romio and Juliet, Heer, Ranja. 

👉 THE SHREW : 

                   This is that nagging , bothersome wife always battering her husband with verbal abuse. 

👉 FEMME FATALE :  

                           A female character type who brings upon catastrophic and disastrous events. Eve from Bible. 

👉 THE JOURNEY :

                          A narrative archetype where the protagonist must overcome a series of obstacles before reaching his or her goal .

2]  SITUATIONS / SYMBOLS :

👉 THE TASK:  

                    A situation in which a character , or a group of characters , is driven to complete some duty of monstrous  proportion.

👉THE QUEST :

                     The characters are searching for something , whether consciously or unconsciously . Their actions, thoughts and feelings center around the goal of completing this quest.

👉THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE :

                                  As the name suggests , loss of innocence through sexual experience , vilolence or any other means .

👉WATER : 

         Water is a symbol of life, cleansing and rebirth. It is a strong life force and is often depicted as a living reasoning force.

👉SUN :  

     Fire and ice are colsely related to it. it suggests creative energy , thinking ,enlightenment , wisdom, spiritual vision . The rising sun suggests birth, creation, enlightenment while the setting sun suggests death.

👉COLORS : 

RED : Blood , sacrifice , passion, disorder .

GREEN :Growth , hope, fertility.

BLUE : Highly positive , secure , tranquil  , spiritual purity.

BLACK : Darkness , chaos , mystery , the unknown death , wisdom, evil, melancholy.

WHITE : Light, purity, innocence, timelessness ; it has negative aspects also, death, terror , supernatural.

YELLOW: Enlightenment, wisdom.

👉SERPENT (SNACK / WORM ) : 

                                            Symbol of energy and pure force(libido), evil, corruption, sensuality, destruction. Serpent in Paradise Lost .

👉NUMBERS :  

3. -Light, spiritual awareness , unity , male principle .

4.- Associated with circle, life circle , four seasons , earth , nature , elements. iN HINDU marriage four circles around fire ( dharma , artha , kam and moksha ).

7.- The most potent of all symbolic numbers signifying the union of three and four , the completion of a cycle , perfect order, perfect number , religious symbol. 

👉WISE OLD MAN : 

                       Savior , redeemer , guru, representing knowledge , reflection, insight, wisdom, intution and morality. ( old man in Doctor Faustus )

👉GARDEN:  

Paradise , innocence , unspoiled beauty . 

👉TREE : 

             Denotes life of the cosmos, growth, proliferation , symbol of immortality, phallic symbol.

👉DESERT: 

               Spiritual aridity, death, hopelessness.

👉CREATION:

                       All cultures believe the cosmos was brought into existence by some supernatural being or beings.

👉SEASON :

                  

SPRING: Rebirth, genre / comedy 

SUMMER : Life, genre/ romance

FALL: Death, dying , genre / tragedy  

WINTER : Without life , death, genre/ irony 

👉THE GREAT FISH :  Divine creation /life .

👉FREUD's  SYMBOLISM / ARCHETYPES :

                           

                          Concave images , ponds, flowers, cups, vases, hollows, female or womb symbols.

                          Phallic symbols , towers, mountain peaks , snakes , knives, male symbols.

                          Dancing, riding, or flying symbols of sexual pleasure.

2] WHAT IS FRYE TRYING TO PROVE BY GIVING AN ANALOGY OF PHYSICS OF NATURE AND CRITICISM OF LITERATURE ?

           In the very binning of his essay THE ARCHETYPES OF LITERATURE , there is a sentence , that every organized body of knowledge can be learned progressively and experience shows that there is also something progressive about the learning of literature .this sentence has got everyone into a semantic difficulty . Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature,and a student of it says that he is learning physics not that he is learning nature. Art also like nature is the subject of a systematic study and has to be distinguished from the study itself which is criticism. It is therefor impossible to learn literature ; one learns about it in a certain way but what one learns transitively is the criticism of literature. Similarly , the difficulty often felt in teaching literature  arises from the fact that it cannot be done. The criticism of literature is all that can be directly taught. So while no one expects literature itself to behave like a science, there is surely no reason why criticism as a systematic and organized study should not be at least partly a science . Perhaps but these phrases from part of a 19th  century cosmology which is no longer with us. To prove his point Frye gave  an analogy of physics and nature and criticism of literature. Criticism deals with the art and may well be something of an art itself but it does not follow that it must be unsystematic . It is to be related to the sciences too, it does not follow that it must be deprived of the graces of nature.we find in learned journals and scholarly monographs has every characteristics of a science . Just like scientists critics also examines evidences scientifically , previous authorities are used scientifically , fields are investigated scientifically , text are edited scientifically. 

3] SHARE YOUR VIEWS OF CRITICISM AS AN ORGANISED BODY OF KNOWLEDGE . MENTION RELATION OF LITERATURE WITH HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY .

                                            HISTORY and PHILOSOPHY are two pillars of strength for literature. All human actions are restored in history and the wisdom is recorded in philosophy . Philosophy remains mother of all things . Criticism is an art. Literature is the central division of humanities flanked on one side by history and on the other by philosophy . For the systematic mental organization of the subject the student has to turn to the conceptual framework of the historian for events and to that of the philosopher for ideas.

4] BRIEFLY EXPLAIN INDUCTIVE METHOD WITH ILLUSION OF SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET'S GRAVE DIGGER SCENE .

              Inductive method leads us from observation to theory and from particular to general. It is like from particular truths in a work ,one draws forth general truths. In Shakespeare's HAMLET's grave digging scene , we have seen that gravedigger was not affected by the death of others because it is his routine work. so we came to know about that it was no big deal for the gravedigger to sing a song while digging the grave and placing different bones of the body on the ground .

5] BRIEFLY EXPLAIN DEDUCTIVE METHOD WITH REFERENCE TO ANALOGY TO MUSIC, PAINTING, RHYTHM AND PATTERN.

                               Deductive method leads us from theory to particular observations, from general to particular.Literature is like music and painting.Rhythm is an essential characteristics of music and painting i the painting , pattern is the chief virtue.Rhythm in music is temporal and pattern in painting is spatial. In literature both rhythm and pattern are recurrence rhythm means the narrative which presents all the events and episodes as a sequence and action. Pattern in literature signifies it's verbal structure and conveys a meaning.

6] GIVE EXAMPLES OF OUTCOME OF DEDUCTIVE METHOD .REFER TO THE INDIAN SEASONAL GRID .IF YOU CAN, READ SMALL GUJARATI OR HINDI OR ENGLISH POEM FROM THE ARCHETYPAL APPROACH AND APPLY INDIAN SEASON GRID IN THE INTERPRETATION.

 In this famouse gujarati song Mor, peacock Is the symbol of happiness and rain, the archetypal symbol water Water is a symbol of life, cleansing and rebirth. It is a strong life force and is often depicted as a living reasoning force.

 CLICK HERE TO KNOW ABOUT INDIAN SEASONAL GRID

Click Here to visit my blog on Religion and Literature

CULTURAL STUDIES : ONE DAY WORKSHOP BY KALYANI VALLATH

ONE DAY WORKSHOP ON CULTURAL STUDIES BY Dr. KALYANI VALLATH

 Today's blog is about one day workshop on CULTURAL STUDIES by Dr. Kalyani Vallath  at our Department of English ,MKB University.

(Dr. Kalyani Vallath)

            Dr. Kalyani Vallath, a passionate and energetic teacher, successful , a Q- shop owner , Edu- Entrepreneur,  a living example of  literary entrepreneurship ,director of Vallaths TES. to know more about Vallaths TES CLICK HERE. Dr. Vallath's teaching style is quite unique , when you are studying about  completely different cultures sometimes you must feel exhausted but when there a teacher like Dr. kalyani ma'am teaches you ,there's no chance to for you to get any kind of exhaustion. In her teaching, for the better understanding of students she uses day to day life experiences. She introduced her self as  ,"I AM A PASSIONATE TEACHER "  and she is truly a passionate teacher.

                  we call ourselves as secular  country , so why this blood shed in the name of religion, there's a politics behind it and to understand this politics one has to study cultural studies. Cultural study is interdisciplinary study. the main focus of cultural study is to know how culture relates to the larger society, political dynamics of mass media and everyday cultural practices , how culture transforms individual experiences , social realities and power relations which draws on social theory , philosophy , history , linguistics and media. Cultural studies is about studying human nature and culture. In the session ma'am explained about :

Evolution of cultural studies 
Marxist Revisionism 
Hegelian Dialectical Method 
New Left
Working class culture and Mass Culture 
Cultural Intermidiaries 
Popular cultural studies 
Subcultural studies 
Trauma studies 
Visual cultural studies 
Celebrity cultural studies 

                               After the session my understanding about the cultural studies is changed i came to know about the importance of cultural studies. Not just food , cloths , festivals  and rituals but politics , economy, geography, history  all are part of the culture.it ( cultural studies ) teaches us to come out of our own immaturity. it helps to see things more maturely. apply reasons to solve something .

                              If i had to explain about cultural studies to a layman first i would try to make the layman understand about what is cultural study, why it is important to study and to understand cultural studies. I would explain all the cultural theories in simple language using day to day life examples as the way Kalyani ma'am did in  her lecture.

EXAMPLES GIVEN BY Dr. VALLATH:

1} Dr. Vallath gave an example of how on her visit to Assam , people there served a disgusting dish made out of animals blood ,and there was a person who told her that why they eat such a disgusting dish because  there was  a history behind the people  who were eating that why , whey they were eating it because of the lack of food they had to eat it , just to survive . after knowing the history of that people Ma'am's perspective about the people changed.

2} Ma'am shared her experiance that how when she shaved her head how people commented on her new look , some called her rebellion, some thought that she had cancer and some people who used to hate her actually started to love her and the people who used to love her started hatting her. But the real reason behind her going bald was that because of late night work and lack of sleep she started losing her hair and that's why she shaved her head.

                       It was a rather very fruitful session,  i came to know about the importance of cultural studies. It's about us , it helps us to understand each other's cultural differences , it makes us mature , it makes us more tolerant , it makes us to apply reasons. Dr. Kalyani was so friendly and enthusiastic and also a great teacher, a bold , courageous and  very dawn to earth human being.

AUDIO - VIDEO OF THE SESSION :

SOME MEMORIES :

• 

THANK YOU....

                             

Sahitya Akadmi Award 2019, Shashi Tharoor's An Era Of Darkness

SHASHI THAROOR'S VIEWS ON POST COLONIAL STUDY AND CRITIQUE OF FILMS :

          HELLO READERS ,
                       
This blog is a part of my academic activity which was given to us by professor Dr. Dilip Barad Sir . To know more about the task CLICK HERE.

                                         
                                Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician , writer and also a former international Diplomat who is currently serving as Member of Parliament , Lock Sabha from Thruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is famous for his English as well as his books. Recently the list of SAHITYA ACADEMI AWARS is declared in which Tharoor's An Era of Darkness won the award in the category of non -fiction.

SPEECH AT OXFORD UNION :

LOOKING BACK AT THE BRITISH RAJ IN INDIA. THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH :

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY KARAN THAPAR ON HIS BOOK AN ERA OF DARKNESS :

ABOUT BRITISH COLONIALISM IN INDIA IN HIS NEW BOOK AN ERA OF DARKNESS :

THE BLACK PRINCE :

VICTORIA AND ABDUL :

                In all videos Tharoor point out most crucial issues like Poverty in India during British rule , how they used our innocent people in the bulding  of railway in India.The most important thing is that  how smoothly with correct statistics Tharoor put his point in his speech . he talked about slavery, starvation,  how they used us in the world war , about tax, about the supply of Rifles, cloths. He also talked bout colonialism in Africa. This speech by Tharoor is a best example of how to make a good and to the point arguments. The argument which i liked the most is the arguments he presented at the Oxford University. His argument was to the point without any exaggeration ( not like other politicians , who without any  correct information  just vomit on the stage or in parliament.)

Now about the movie The Black Prince, Best example of colonization in India by Britishers. In the movie the charecter of Duleep Singh, reminds me of Friday from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.Even the people who were taking care of Duleep Singh raised him in Christianity knowing that he is a Sikh, and whenever there must be any function they used to drees him in Indian royal attire with turban, sword, jewelry. And the all used to call hi Black Prince, even if he is whitish not African. Britishers were masters in "Divide and Rule" game. Best example of "ONE CAN SMILE AND SMILE AND BE A VILLAIN". 

THINKING ACTIVITY ON JOHN KEATS

HELLO MY DEAREST READERS ,

                       Today's blog is about a thinking activity task assigned  by Heenaba Zala Ma'am , to know more about the task CLICK HERE.

                There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today but Whenever we hear the word "Death",  मृत्यु ,मौत, in any language ,we feel fear and horror. Generally people considers death as divine ,uncertain, uninvited , cunning, cruel,sudden , disgusting, fearful, horrible , sorrowful  and so on. But when it comes to writers , they presents a different portrait of "DEATH" to their readers. In Gujarati there's a famous  saying about poets, "જ્યાં નાં પહોંચે રવિ ત્યાં પોહ્ચે કવિ"(a poet can reach anywhere , where even sun can't reach). They have their own different perceptions about death. Generally people considers death as sad but some writers considers death nothing more than a peaceful sleep.

Death the word is enough to make a man's life horrible. In all the riligions of the world we find different theories and believes about death. 

BIBLE ABOUT DEATH:

BHAGVADGEETA ABOUT DEATH:

ISALAM ( QURAN )ABOUT DEATH:

DEATH BE NOT PROUD BY JOHN DONNE :

The Sonnet 'Death Be Not Proud ' is addressed by the poet to Death itself. The attempt of the poet is to nullify fear of Death by writing about it in just 14 lines .Generally most of people consider death as Mighty and dangerous, frightening and very painful Experience of  life. But the poet reacts altogether in a different way to Death. In the very first opening stanza the port clarifies that the death is neither mighty nor dreadful.  Death it self may think that it ends the life of the people but in reality those people do not die, Death can never end eternal life of people. The poet considers Death as nothing more then transitory pause in the eternal life. He believes that Death is nothing more than rest and peaceful sleep . If the poet has to draw Picture of Death, he would draw the picture of a person enjoying sound sleep and rest. That means Death offers sleep and rest to mankind. so a great pleasure should be derived from Death.

The poet considers death as rest and sleep , From rest and sleep which but thy pictures be . He further considers death as the slave of fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, "Though art slave to fate, chance, kings ,and desperate men" He considers death as mere sleep and there will be a rebirth after it and that's why there is no need to be afraid of it ."One short sleep past , we wake eternally and death shall be no more , Death ,thou shalt die"

DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL BY HENRY SCOTT - HOLLAND:

Death Is Nothing At All , by Henry Scott Holland is a very famous poem on which deals with the theme of death. In this poem the dead speaker tries to console his the people he left behind , saying that the two of them are still the same to one another as they were before. Nothing has changed in their relationship or the memories they shared.

He says that,

"Death is nothing at all .

It does not count .

I have only slipped away into the next room.

Nothing has happened."

A HAPPY MAN BY EDWIN HARLINGTON ROBINSON:

         In this poem the poet  even he is dead he addresses his loved once by saying ,

                                                         " Do not pity me;
                                                          Though i be among the dead ,
                                                           let no mournful words be said ".

here we can see that the poet considered death as something natural and the tone of the poem is so positive which we can not find in general death poems. He says that there is no need to shade tears and tells everyone to leave him to rest and he also calls death as the region of the blest.

                                                     "Leave me to my Quite rest ,
                                                      in the region of the blest."

  Poets are magicians ,who have different tricks to deal with everything differently , they can write about anything , any subject , they have their own different visions , images about everything.They can find beauty in an ugly thing and likewise they can also find ugliness in the most beautiful thing .Death is something which is so horrible but poets like John Donne ,Edwin Hardington , Henry Scott Holland have their different views about death. Some finds death peaceful sleep, while some tells their loved ones to do not weep because death is like shifting into another home.

THANK YOU.....

RAPE !!!

Hello Readers ,
             Welcome to my blog,

                                     " यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवताः ।
                            यत्रैतास्तु न पूज्यन्ते सर्वास्तत्राफलाः क्रियाः ॥"

      

            Today i want to write about RAPE! YES, rape . Today's blog is for those people who think that women themselves are responsible for their rape, Today's blog is for those people who everyday tell their daughters to come home on time because they are girls , Today's blog is for those people who advice women to wear Indian cloths , to respect Indian culture, Today's blog is for those people who think that women are weak ,Today's blog is for those people who think that women must avoid talking to their male friends because if they do, it means "BADNAMI OF KHANDAN", Today's blog is for those people who treat their daughters, wives , mothers , female colleagues as mere puppets .

                RAPE! only one word that can make a women's life miserable , chaotic and worst than hell, Only one word . At first i used to avoid talking about it but one day when my brother messaged me to send him my live locations everyday, so that if anything happens to me he can track my location and find me , suddenly i felt very  weak , helpless and numb. This things made me realize that what RAPE is , how horrible this is. I was thinking about how can we stop this.

# Why can't we tell our sons to come home early as we tell the same thing to our daughters?

# why can't we  teach our sons to respect women?

#why there are no classes for boys to teach them how to respect women ?

# why people always blame women for the bad things happened to them ? 

#Why women are criticize for their cloths ?

# why people always talk about women's virginity rather than  males? 

#why a woman's character is always decided  by her clothes ?

 #why she can't  step out at night after 10 pm?

# Instead of putting so many restriction on women why  can't  we  make a women friendly society ?

WOMEN IN VEDAS:

Atharva Ved

Atharva 11.5.18

According to the mantra of Brahmcharya Sukta, it is emphasized that" girls too should train themselves as students and only then enter into married life. The Sukta specifically emphasizes that girls should receive the same level of training as boys."

(Book: Mera Dharma, Author: Priyavrat Vedavachaspati, Gurukul Kangri University)

Chapter 1: Women in Vedic Dharma, Page 8

"Girls should train themselves to become complete scholars and youthful through Brahmcharya and then enter married life."

(Atharvaveda-Hindi Bhashya, Part 2, Author: Kshemkarandas Trivedi, Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Delhi, Page 413-414)

WOMEN IN BOLLYWOOD :

"Kabhi kabhi mere dil me khayal aata hai

Ki yeh badan yeh nigahe meree amanat hain”

                                                KABHI KABHI (1975)

"Are tu boli thi pichhle jumme ko
Chumma dungi agle jumme ko
Aaj jumma hai to aaja aaja
Aaja aaja aaja aaja”

               ( JUMMA CHUMMA SONG FROM AGNIPATH )

“Tu kisi aur ki ho na jana

Kuch bhi kar jaaonga main deewana

Tu haan kar, ya naa kar

Tu hai meri… Kiran”

                     ( TU HE MERI KIRAN SONG FROM  DARR)

“Ban mitra di whore
I mean mitra di ho”
                  (BROWN RANG SONG BY HONEY SINGH)

Naina hum ladayenge baby doll se

Ho“ laundiya patayenge miss call se”

                                          (FEVICOLE SE SONG FROM DBANG 2)

WHY RAPE
 IS A PROBLEM IN INDIA?

(RAPE CASES IN INDIA)

WHAT ARE THE REASONS BEHIND RAPE ACCORDING TO OUR POLITICAL LEADERS ?

INDIAN ANTI RAPE LAWS , EXPLAINED:

SOCIETY ABOUT RAPE AND RAPE VICTIMS:

                       
                                    I don't know, how to conclude this blog, what should I do, what to write in conclusion because I don't find any solution, I feel terrible, I feel peculiar, I am blank, I really don't know how should I conclude this blog........