Frye's Imagination

While reading chapter 2 the singing song, i was very intriguid by the writing style of Northrop Frye and the way that he thinks about things. One thing that I thought was intereasting was Myths tend to stick together to form a mythology. That is so because myths are conventional, because one myth inspires another. Similarly, in our culture, one novel inspires another. Frye does not accept the romantic theory that literature is uniquely inspired. "A writer's desire to write can only have come from previous experience of literature," says Frye, "and he'll start by imitating whatever he's read" (p. 40). This leads to conventions in form as well as content: "Literature can derive its forms only from itself" (p. 42), he says and again, "The writer of literature can only write out what takes shape in his mind" (p. 46), Literary conventions enable the writer to incorporate personal experience into literature.