Editing Northrop Frye (section)

===Contribution to the theorizing of Canada===
During the 1950s, Frye wrote annual surveys of Canadian poetry for the ''University of Toronto Quarterly'', which led him to observe recurrent themes and preoccupations in Canadian poetry.<ref>{{cite book|title=Introduction: Field Notes of a Public Critic, The Bush Garden|last=Hutcheon|first=Linda|author2=Northrop Frye|publisher=Anansi|year=1995|location=Toronto|pages=ix|author-link=Linda Hutcheon}}</ref> Subsequently, Frye elaborated on these observations, especially in his conclusion to [[Carl F. Klinck]]'s ''Literary History of Canada'' (1965). In this work, Frye presented the idea of the "[[garrison mentality]]" as the attitude from which Canadian literature has been written. The garrison mentality is the attitude of a member of a community that feels isolated from cultural centres and besieged by a hostile landscape.<ref name="Frye 1965 342">{{cite book|title=Conclusion, Literary History of Canada|last=Frye|first=Northrop|author2=Carl F. Klinck|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1965|location=Toronto|pages=342|author-link=Northrop Frye}}</ref> Frye maintained that such communities were peculiarly Canadian, and fostered a literature that was formally immature, that displayed deep moral discomfort with "uncivilized" nature, and whose narratives reinforced social norms and values.<ref name="Frye 1965 342"/>

Frye also aided James Polk in compiling ''[[Divisions on a Ground|Divisions on a Ground: Essays on Canadian Culture]]'' (1982).<ref>For a critical discussion on Canadianness see: Marc A. Bauch: ''Canadian Self-Perception and Self-Representation in English-Canadian Drama after 1967.'' Wiku-Verlag, Köln 2012. {{ISBN|3-865534-07-4}}</ref> In the posthumous ''Collected Works of Northrop Frye'', his writings on Canada occupy the thick 12th volume.<ref>{{cite book|title=Collected Works of Northrop Frye Volume 12: Northrop Frye on Canada|last=Frye|first=Northrop|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2003|editor=Jean O'Grady|location=Toronto|author-link=Northrop Frye|editor2=David Staines}}</ref>

'''Garrison mentality'''

Frye collected his disparate writings on Canadian writing and painting in ''[[The Bush Garden|The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination]]'' (1971). He coined phrases like ''the Garrison Mentality'', a theme that summarizes Canadian literature. Margaret Atwood adopted his approach and elaborated on this in her book ''[[Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature|Survival]]'' (1972).<ref>Marc A. Bauch: ''Canadian Self-Perception and Self-Representation in English-Canadian Drama after 1967''. Wiku-Verlag, Köln 2012. {{ISBN|3-865534-07-4}}</ref>

'''Canadian identity in literature'''

Based on his observations of Canadian literature, Frye concluded that, by extension, [[Canadian identity]] was defined by a fear of nature, by the history of settlement and by unquestioned adherence to the community. However, Frye perceived the ability and advisability of Canadian (literary) identity to move beyond these characteristics. Frye proposed the possibility of movement beyond the literary constraints of the garrison mentality: growing urbanization, interpreted as greater control over the environment, would produce a society with sufficient confidence for its writers to compose more formally advanced detached literature.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Frye
 | first = Northrop
 | author-link = Northrop Frye
 |author2=Carl F. Klinck
 | title = Conclusion, Literary History of Canada
 | publisher = University of Toronto Press
 | year = 1965
 | location = Toronto
 | pages = 351}}</ref>

==== Study of literary productions ====
Frye's international reputation allowed him to champion Canadian literature at a time when to do so was considered provincial. Frye argued that regardless of the formal quality of the writing, it was imperative to study Canadian literary productions in order to understand the Canadian imagination and its reaction to the Canadian environment.<ref>{{cite book|title=Conclusion, Literary History of Canada|last=Frye|first=Northrop|author2=Carl F. Klinck|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1965|location=Toronto|pages=334|author-link=Northrop Frye}}
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