Northrop Frye and the Phenomenology of Myth

In Northrop Frye and the Phenomenology of Myth , Glen Robert Gill compares Frye's theories about myth to those of three other major twentieth-century mythologists: C.G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Mircea Eliade. Gill explores the theories of these respective thinkers as they relate to Frye's discussions of the phenomenological nature of myth, as well as its religious, literary, and psychological significance. Gill substantiates Frye's work as both more radical and more tenable than that of his three contemporaries. Eliade's writings are shown to have a metaphysical basis that abrogates an understanding of myth as truly phenomenological, while Jung's theory of the collective unconscious emerges as similarly problematic. Likewise, Gill argues, Campbell's work, while incorporating some phenomenological progressions, settles on a questionable metaphysical foundation. Gill shows how, in contrast to these other mythologists, Frye's theory of myth – first articulated in Fearful Symmetry (1947) and culminating in Words with Power (1990) – is genuinely phenomenological. With excursions into fields such as literary theory, depth psychology, theology, and anthropology, Northrop Frye and the Phenomenology of Myth is essential to the understanding of Frye's important mythological work. Contents 7 Preface 9 Abbreviations 13 Introduction. Phenomenology and Modern Mythography: Northrop Frye in Context and Contrast 17 1. De Caelis: The Platonic Patterns of Mircea Eliade 37 2. De Profundis: C.G. Jung and the Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious 61 3. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Joseph Campbell and the Two Faces of Myth 89 4. Cleansing the Doors of Perception: Northrop Frye’s Fearful Symmetry 117 Conclusion. Phenomenology and Postmodern Mythography: Northrop Frye’s Words with Power and the Theory of Kerygma 195 Notes 219 Works Cited and Consulted 235 Index 247