Northrop Frye and Theories of Human Nature

Abstract

Northrop Frye sought out the laws governing the rise and fall of cultural ideas, bringing the attitude of a system-builder to his research. As he pointed out on many occasions, psychologists and anthropologists, such as Jung and Frazer, were addressing some of the same questions, albeit with a different set of tools. However, their ultimate goal – gaining a wider view of how cultures and creative minds intermeshed – was the same as his. I was greatly moved by Frye's grand vision, which influenced my choice of the word ‘mimesis’ as a label for the ancient cognitive adaptation that defined the underlying logic of the human mind. Mimesis established the cognitive foundation upon which the evolution of language and symbolic thought became possible. The analogue logic of mimetic representation is still the underlying currency of symbolic exchange, as it seamlessly connects gesture and ritual with everyday speech, narrative, and text.