Brian Russell Graham. the Necessary Unity of Opposites: The Dialectical Thinking of Northrop Frye

Brian Russell Graham. The Necessary Unity of Opposites: The Dialectical Thinking of Northrop Frye. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2011, xvi + 137 pp. The recent resurgence of interest in Northrop Frye, sparked in part by ongoing publication of Collected Works by University of Toronto, has worked to reestablish Frye's relevance to contemporary criticism. Aside from work of a handful of dedicated scholars, Frye's work had fallen to wayside either because his work on myth has been considered anachronistic or because his disinterest in criticism has been considered regressive or simplistic. Brian Russell Graham's new book, The Necessary Unity of Opposites: The Dialectical Thinking of Northrop Frye, contributes to this increase in interest and argues that Frye's thought is unified by a dialecticism heavily influenced by William Blake's Orc/Urizen cycle. The introduction presents Graham's goal of demonstrating suprahistorical and post-partisan nature of Frye's thought. While critics such as Robert Denham and Satra Toth have turned their attention to Frye's concept of interpenetration that appears in his notebooks--a concept that bears some similarity to Blakean dialectic--Graham instead relies on Frye's published work to demonstrate dialectical approach that characterizes his thought process. Throughout introduction Graham stresses importance of dialectic to Frye's thought, that when faced with conflicting terms Frye's thought moves dialectically beyond level of opposition onto a level where seemingly antithetical modes of thought prove to be complementary (6). The spatial metaphor of resolution on a separate, higher level also aligns with Frye's invocation of Apocalyptic world as space of revelation. Ultimately, it is this ability to move beyond simple conflicts and to see inherent unity of opposed concepts that permits Frye's insights into literature, education, and a great variety of social questions. In second chapter Mandarin and Rebel: Frye's Dialectical Secular Thinking, Graham establishes structure he will use throughout book. Each chapter presents opposing terms and supplies evidence from Frye's writing to show inadequacy of either of terms and need to transcend opposition. In second chapter, for example, Graham touts Frye's exceptionalism by citing his of such dead ends as either radical or reactionary politics (18). For Graham, Frye follows a middle path that facilitates a broader, truer perspective. This method is surprisingly effective, and reading this slim volume reader continually finds parallels between Frye's various modes of thought. Graham strengthens this structure through his invocation of Blake's Orc/Urizen cycle, likening opposition to the cyclical nature of human history (20). This chapter corrects false assumption that Frye's seeming disinterest in partisan politics was rooted in his own apoliticism. Rather, Graham argues that Frye assiduously avoided political dead ends by refusing to succumb to partisan bickering. Post-partisan Frye acknowledges importance of conflict as a part of politics but remains above controversy. As Graham presents it, Frye's dialectical thought is purged of association with marxist dialectical criticism through this avoidance of engagement. Chapters 3 and 4 take up opposition of beauty and truth in regard to Blake's poetry and secular literature, respectively. Graham continues his case for centrality of Blake's influence on Frye, building on Orc and Urizen metaphor of irresolvable conflict to include Los, spirit of work which separates two, and Ulro, a cosmological counter to Eden (27-30). The expansion of this metaphor solidifies work of mediation that must take place between dialectically opposed pairs. The second of these paired chapters defines Frye's place in world of literary criticism. …

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