Fearful Symmetry

Northrop Frye
FEARFUL SYMMETRY was a hard book to write, not only because it was my 􀀀rst, and not only because of its subject. Every major poet demands from his critic a combination of direction and perspective, of intensive and extensive reading. The critic must know his poet’s text to the point of possession, of having it all in his head at once, as well as knowing whatever aspect of the poet’s “background” is relevant to his approach. At the same time he should be able to place his poet in a broad literary context. The doctoral thesis is useful for encouraging intensive reading, but of very little use for gaining literary perspective, which takes years to develop and cannot be hurried. The present book never went through the thesis stage, and my interest in Blake had from the beginning been of the extensive kind. Its 􀀀fth and last complete rewriting consisted largely of cutting out of it a mass of critical principles and observations, some of which found their way into my next long book, Anatomy of Criticism. This may explain why Fearful Symmetry takes the form, not of the fully documented commentary which is what I should prefer to write now, but of an extended critical essay in the Swinburne tradition. The subject of that essay is Blake in his literary context, which means, not Blake’s “place in literature,” but Blake as an illustration of the poetic process.

جهت استعلام قيمت و سفارش چاپ اين محصول لطفا با انتشارات گنج حضور تماس حاصل فرماييد