A landmark work of literary criticism
Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism is the magnum opus of one of the
most important and influential literary theorists of the twentieth
century. Breaking with the practice of close reading of individual
texts, Frye seeks to describe a common basis for understanding the full
range of literary forms by examining archetypes, genres, poetic
language, and the relations among the text, the reader, and society.
Using a dazzling array of examples, he argues that understanding "the
structure of literature as a total form" also allows us to see the
profoundly liberating effect literature can have.