The Legacy of Northrop Frye

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

Northrop Frye died early in 1991. Almost all his intellectual and
scholarly life had been centred on Victoria College in the University of
Toronto, so it was appropriate that, in 1992, a group of scholars and
artists should gather there to consider not so much his achievement in
the past as what he has bequeathed to the future.

What is “the legacy of Northrop Frye”? Reading through this
gathering of the proceedings, one notices how often contributors refer
to his moments of almost mystical illumination. “I suddenly got a
vision of coherence,” he once reported. “Things began to form a
pattern and make sense.” It is worth remembering that, for decades, he
appeared in the university calendar as “H.N. Frye” under English and
as “Rev. H.N. Frye” in the area of religious studies. It seems not
unlikely that Frye will ultimately be remembered not so much as a
literary theorist—his “vision of coherence” already looks odd in a
world mesmerized by “deconstruction”—but as a religious visionary.


Frye also felt the moral urge to communicate his vision as widely as
possible. His books are sometimes difficult because of the wide-ranging
complexity of his thought, but his style was never either jargon-ridden
or needlessly obscure, and it was often characterized by wit and a pithy
elegance. Whether his subject was secular or sacred, it was invariably
“scripture,” and he spent a lifetime spreading the gospel of the
word (or Word). He never strayed far from his religious roots.

A few contributions to this book succumb to the “intense inane” of
gobbledegook, but most follow Frye’s example and discuss his work
frankly and intelligibly. Though they obviously and properly come to
praise, they are also prepared, healthily, to challenge. Moreover, all
is not solemn. One of the most memorable contributions is a witty,
technically audacious poem by Margaret Atwood in a style totally unlike
what we have come to expect in her verse. It is an eloquent tribute to
Frye’s capacity to stimulate—which may well prove to be his most
enduring “legacy.”