Anatomy of Criticism IntroductionIn his Anatomy of Criticism, Northrop Frye proposes a complex theory that aspires to describe a unifying system for literary criticism. It can be argued, however, that in attempting to delineate such an overall structure, Frye's system eliminates identity in literature. The present essay takes up this argument and offers examples of how identity is excluded by Frye's system, as described in Anatomy of Criticism. Structure vs. IdentityIn Frye's system, the organizing principles that give coherence and structure to literature are derived from the myths of ancient Greece and the archetypal imagery found in the Bible. In his Third Essay, Frye suggests that all literature is based on displacements of these myths. However, in positing this, Frye denies the individual identity of a literary work: it becomes simply another abstraction of an axial symbol, an embellished copy of an archetypal myth. This principle also essentially annexes the identity of the writer, as each literary work is considered by Frye to be based on or derived from all other works. The originality of a writer's ideas is denied, and the identity of the author is therefore denied. There is no such thing as an “original” literary identity in Frye’s system. For Frye, literature must lead back to the Garden, to mythical symbolism; if a literary work does not displace an archetype, it is not considered literature. Although it seems that Frye is able to find axial images in almost all of his works, we must wonder what his theory of myths excludes. If we look at the works cited in Anatomy, we see that Frye focuses much of his discussion on the classics of Western literature (Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, TS......middle of article ......y in this quote by removing the individual from the question: the immediacy of “Who am I?” is replaced by the more disinterested and impersonal “Where is here?” literature, Frye denies Canadian literary identity Conclusion Northrop Frye's theory of literary criticism attempts to include all literature in a structure that totalizes the writer, the reader, and individual literary works are negated; these identities, Frye perhaps excludes the identity of literature itself Frye, Northrop (19)., 1957.