Our discussion this week will be about Northrop Frye’s archetypal theories as expressed in the two Frye essays included in your Study Folder. Frye’s theories are some of the most exciting and insightful in the whole history of criticism, so I am sure you will find them engaging, even mind-blowing. Now, the notion of the universal unconscious as expressed by Karl Jung and Joseph Campbell runs counter to Christian thought, so you should not let yourself get caught up too much in the archetypal theory espoused by Frye, whose theories align with those of Jung. However, this same theory led Frye to postulate the relationship of genre to itself, which is where our interest should be focused. Frye suggests that the four basic genres—comedy, romance, tragedy, and satire/irony—correspond to the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter. What’s more, he places these “seasons” of genre on a circular table that allows for all possible genre types, which he would suggest are nothing more than an infinite blending of these four basic dramatic forms.
YOUR PROMPT: Based on your readings and the provided graph, what are your thoughts about Frye’s insightful attempt to explain the relationship of dramatic genre? Can you see and agree with his ideas? Or do you think he simply missed the mark? Where on this circle might you place your favorite plays? (Few plays would be fully tragic or ironic, so they must fall on the circle between two of these points.) Also, if there is a circular movement around Frye’s circle—moving from tragedy to comedy to romance to irony—then would there also be possible movement up and down the spokes of the wheel toward the center point? If so, if this even makes sense, what elements of the drama might be amplified by such a move? What kind of genres lie in this direction? An even more profound question might be, what lies at the center of the wheel? If this were a graph in mathematics, we would be moving up and down the X (or Y) axis, and the X and the Y are generally stand-ins for other values. And since he compares his wheel to the cycles of nature, what might this suggest about the center of the wheel and what lies on its spokes? (There is no right or wrong answer to this. Your professor is unsure of what we might find by exploring such a paradigm, but he hopes there is something there to discover.)
You may jump into this conversation at any point. Feel free to chase a new line of thought based on the reading. Choose what speaks most strongly to you and get started.
Remember, we are looking to build a scholarly framework in which to position our opinions and choices. You should incorporate source material (assigned or otherwise) into your posts as much as possible and always include a Works Cited list at the bottom of your post. Please make sure your posts conform to MLA format. You should post one initial post (200-300 words)
