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Read through the most famous quotes from Northrop Frye
Nobody is capable of of free speech unless he knows how to use language, and such knowledge is not a gift: it has to learned and worked at. [p.93] ↗
I don't see how the study of language and literature can be separated from the question of free speech, which we all know is fundamental to our society. [p.92] ↗
In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented. ↗
The order of words
The recurring primitive formulas Frye noticed in his survey of the "greatest classics" provide literature with an order of words a "skeleton" which allows the reader "to respond imaginatively to any literary work by seeing it in the larger perspective provided by its literary and social contexts" (Hamilton 20). By attaching criticism to an external framework rather than locating the framework for criticism within literature this kind of critic essentially "substitute[s] a critical attitude for criticism. Frye proposed the possibility of movement beyond the literary constraints of the garrison mentality: growing urbanization interpreted as greater control over the environment would produce a society with sufficient confidence for its writers to compose more formally advanced detached literature.
Herman Northrop "Norrie" Frye CC FRSC (July 14 1912 – January 23 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. " Frye's contributions to cultural and social criticism spanned a long career during which he earned widespread recognition and received many honours.