诺斯洛普·弗莱

赫尔曼·诺思洛普·弗莱CC FRSC （Herman Northrop Frye, 1912年7月14日—1991年1月23日），是加拿大文学评论家和文学理论家。

弗莱凭借第一本作品《可畏的对称》赢得了国际声誉。该作重新诠释威廉·布莱克的诗歌。更重要的成就，是弗莱通过《批评的解剖》，建立了现代文学批评的原型批评理论。哈罗德·布鲁姆评论《批评的解剖》将弗莱确立为“西方文学中最重要的在世学者”。

《伟大的代码：圣经与文学》开创神话-原型批评流派，影响1950、1960年代的西方评论界。

Herman Northrop Frye (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 gained international fame with his first book, Fearful Symmetry (1947), which led to the reinterpretation of the poetry of William Blake. His lasting reputation rests principally on the theory of literary criticism that he developed in Anatomy of Criticism (1957), one of the most important works of literary theory published in the twentieth century. The American critic Harold Bloom commented at the time of its publication that Anatomy established Frye as "the foremost living student of Western literature." Frye's contributions to cultural and social criticism spanned a long career during which he earned widespread recognition and received many honours.

Biography

Early life and education

Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, but raised in Moncton, New Brunswick, Frye was the third child of Herman Edward Frye and of Catherine Maud Howard. His much older brother, Howard, died in World War I; he also had a sister, Vera. His first cousin was the scientist Alma Howard. Frye went to Toronto to compete in a national typing contest in 1929. He studied for his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, where he edited the college literary journal, Acta Victoriana. He then studied theology at Emmanuel College (like Victoria College, a constituent part of the University of Toronto). After a brief stint as a student minister in Saskatchewan, he was ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Canada. He then studied at Merton College, Oxford, where he was a member and Secretary of the Bodley Club before returning to Victoria College, where he spent the remainder of his professional career.

Academic and writing career

Frye rose to international prominence as a result of his first book, Fearful Symmetry, published in 1947. Until then, the prophetic poetry of William Blake had long been poorly understood, and considered by some to be delusional ramblings. Frye found in it a system of metaphor derived from Paradise Lost and the Bible. His study of Blake's poetry was a major contribution to the subject. Moreover, Frye outlined an innovative manner of studying literature that was to deeply influence the study of literature in general. He was a major influence on Harold Bloom, Margaret Atwood, and others.

From 1959 to 1967, he was principal of Victoria College in the University of Toronto. In 1974–1975, Frye was the Norton professor at Harvard University. But his primary position was as a professor at the University of Toronto, and then chancellor of Victoria College from 1978 until his death.

Northrop Frye did not have a PhD.

The intelligence service of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police spied on Frye, watching his participation in the anti–Vietnam War movement, an academic forum about China, and activism to end South African apartheid.

Family life

Frye married Helen Kemp, an educator, editor and artist, in 1937. They met while at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, during a student production of The Gondoliers. They never had children. She died in Australia while accompanying Frye on a lecture tour. Two years after her death in 1986, he remarried to Elizabeth Eedy Brown, the widow of politician James Elisha Brown and the sister of writer Alice Boissonneau. He died in 1991 and was interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario.