This volume, the twenty-second in the acclaimed Collected Works of Northrop Frye series, presents Frye's most influential work, Anatomy of Criticism (1957). In four stylish and sweeping essays, Frye attempts to formulate an overall view of the scope, principles, and techniques of literary criticism and the conventions of literature - its modes, symbols, archetypes, and genres. He makes the case for criticism as a legitimate and structured science, a science that he would go on to wield with great influence over the course of his distinguished career.

Robert D. Denham's introduction to this edition examines the book's genesis, its initial reception, and its relation to Frye's other works, particularly Fearful Symmetry (Volume 14 in the series). He highlights the diagrammatic way of thinking that characterizes Frye's brand of structuralism and explores the meaning of the word 'anatomy.' Denham also provides context for the work, considering the critical tradition out of which it emerged, as well as how it relates to some of the movements that appeared after the waning of structuralism. A key volume in the Collected Works series, this annotated and expertly introduced edition of Anatomy of Criticism will be sure to satisfy Frye's many admirers.

Northrop Frye (1912-1991) was one of Canada's most distinguished men of letters. His first book, Fearful Symmetry, published in 1947, transformed the study of the poet William Blake, and over the next forty years he transformed the study of literature itself. Among his most influential books are Anatomy of Criticism (1957), The Educated Imagination (1963), The Bush Garden (1971), and The Great Code (1982). Northrop Frye on Shakespeare (1986) won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction. A professor at the University of Toronto, Frye gained an international reputation for his wide-reaching critical vision. He lectured at universities around the world and received many awards and honours, including thirty-six honorary degrees.

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Robert D. Denham has edited a number of books by Northrop Frye, including Myth and Metaphor, Reading the World, The Eternal Act of Creation, Frye's diaries, and three volumes of his notebooks. Denham is also the author of Northrop Frye and Critical Method and Northrop Frye: Religious Visionary and Architect of the Spiritual World.

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