Mythology, Value-Judgements and Ideology in Northrop Frye's "Anatomy" and Beyond

Abstract

Hamlet plays with difference in comparing a hawk and a handsaw as if they should be mentioned in the same breath and thought of in the same comparison in a way that would make John Donne wonder whether his metaphysical conceits, such as the lovers as a compass, had not gone far enough. Some comparisons stretch the point because of their disparateness. Others are based on more similarities. Making distinctions can be difficult, as in the case of mythology and ideology. But there is a middle ground. Let us take the comparison between music and poetry. The American composer, Aaron Copeland, was pleased to be appointed the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard in 1951, but wondered in his lectures why he was asked. As a young man, he had commiserated with poets because they “were trying to make music with nothing but words at their command,” yet in time he saw that behind the music of both arts they were joined in “an area where the meanings behind the notes and the meaning beyond the words spring from some common source” (Copeland 1). Copeland was poetic about music just as Northrop Frye considered the music of poetry and even of theory. The composer said: “The music of poetry must forever escape me, no doubt, but the poetry of music is always with me” (2). Whereas the song of literature preoccupied Frye, that of music was the concern of Copeland: “It signifies that largest part of our emotive life –the part that sings. Purposeful singing is what concerns most composers most of their lives” (2). In the spirit of the times, Copeland also added: