Handbook – Experiments in Criticism

Genre Criticism

Here’s a truism. Open a book about biblical hermeneutics, and you’ll find a warning about genre. You can’t read Song of Solomon the way you read II Chronicles. They’re not the same genre. Don’t read Genesis the way you read The Psalms. Again, not the same genre. The Gospel According to John is different thanContinue reading “Genre Criticism”

Anatomy of Criticism: Literary Modes

I’m working my way through Northrop Frye’s seminal work Anatomy of Criticism (1957). The books first essay has the title HISTORICAL CRITICISM and charts the change of literary modes over time. I’ll provide five takeaways from Frye’s scheme for tragic and comic modes then give five possible applications. TAKEAWAYS Frye begins with Aristotle’s Poetics. TheContinue reading “Anatomy of Criticism: Literary Modes”

Anatomy of Criticism: Polemical Introduction

Northrop Frye wrote Anatomy of Criticism in 1957 as a prolegomena. He wanted to write about Spenser’s Faerie Queene but felt himself having to explain position after position until he discovered he was 10,000 feet in the air taking a broader look at the systematic study of literature. The books introduction is the prolegomena toContinue reading “Anatomy of Criticism: Polemical Introduction”