Abstract

The contours of Frye's critical engagements are circumscribed by the Longinian problematic of "elevation" or intensity in poetic language. In this work, I examine the way in which Frye formulates a comprehensive theory of criticism in the course of addressing this issue. I also explore the extent to which Frye's elaboration of a poetics of process represents an attempt to meet what he defined as the key challenge for criticism in our era; namely, "reforging the broken links between creation and knowledge, art and science, myth and concept" . I begin by canvassing how the poetics of process fits into this reconciliatory critical agenda and then proceed to a more detailed examination of what is implicated in the "process" approach to criticism and just how this differs from the "product" or Aristotelian perspective. ;At the centre of this project is an inquiry into the manner in which Frye's poetics of process is informed by the seminal insights of the eighteenth-century philosopher Giambattista Vico. In his elaboration of a poetics of process grounded in Vico, Frye manages to temper and correct the misogynistic turn towards a negative and terrible sublime that has come to dominate the tradition. His approach also mitigates the unfortunate tendency to demonize nature that has accompanied this stance. ;My examination of Vico's impact on Frye's poetics of process involves a close scrutiny of Vico's arguments regarding the primacy of metaphorical thinking, as well as an exploration of his key epistemological principle, verum factum. These ideas are important not only for the role they play in the construction of Frye's critical system of process, but also because of the ethical, social and pedagogical consequences that flow from them. In addressing this more pragmatic and utilitarian aspect of process in critical thinking, I am responding to current trends in critical discourse which tend to dismiss the romantic or Longinian elements in Frye without acknowledging the crucial implications that flow from Frye's acceptance of Vico's key postulates