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March 11, 2007
Conventions Imitate Life Before Imitating Literary Works
Frye, ''Shakespeare's The Tempest'' -- Jerz EL312 (Literary Criticism)
Prospero renounces his magic at the end of the play: this ws conventional, for while magic was a great attraction as dramatic entertainment, it was highly suspicious operation in real life; hence all dramatic magicians were well advised to renounce their powers when the play drew to a close" (304).
Once again, this just re-establishes my belief in mimetic criticism (and cultural crit as well I suppose, but that makes sense since they can easily be interrelated). Obviously, Frye's mention of this convention regarding the magical personas in dramatic works is even explained right within his argument as a result of an external influence of the culture and life during the time in which the work was create, or at least when the convention was established. This supports my blog on Keesey's introduction where I claim that conventions in themselves are mimetic of life.
Posted by LorinSchumacher at March 11, 2007 2:04 PM
Comments
That's right, Lorin. We tend to believe the unbelivable in literary works as long as we've seen a similar idea in another work.
Posted by: Erin at March 12, 2007 1:30 PM