Pierre Juneau

TRIBUTE TO H. NORTHROP FRYE 13 contribute to the intelligibility of the world, to our understanding of ourselves, ofcultures,and ofthe aestheticand spiritualexpressions ofthose cultures, and thereby also to societal improvement. On th.e Canadian and international scene Northrop Frye was an indefatigable defender of the liberal arts and of the humanities. So many aspects could be·mentioned: Frye, co-founder of the Comparative Literature movement in Canada, and of graduate programs in it; Frye, president of the Modern Language Association of America, perhaps the largest learned society in the world; Frye, an intellectual leader in the first congress of the International Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures to take place outside Europe and North America, the 1969 congress in Islamabad, Pakistan; Frye, defender of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Humanities Federation in some of the most·difficult moments of their history as they faced underfunding and public unawareness ofthe strategic importance of stretching the frontiers of basic knowledge and of superbly training superb minds; Frye, Canada'sunique culturalambassadorabroad; . Frye, centre of the Northrop Frye Centre, as he impishly titled himself; Norrie, humanist in his sensibilities, his relationships, his life-style; Victoria's chancellor, teacher to us all until a very few days ago; dear, patient, humorous, benevolent colleague and friend. Your memory is our treasure, and our staggering responsibility. PIERRE JU NEAU Like all of you, I'm very moved to be here this afternoon to pay homage to Northrop Frye - to celebrate his continued presence among us. The thinking of Northrop Frye defies the passing of time and wili remain among us; as he said, 'Death itself may simply be one more discontinuity in existence.' Si Ie grain ne meurt, dit-on en fran~ais, on peut se demander, et c'est bien sur lIne malheureuse consolation, pour ses proches et ses amis, si son absence physique n'attirera pas I'attention sur l'importance de sa pensee pour la conduite de nos affaires; il faut l'esperer. I often wonder with sadness why contemporary society seems to know how to deal with the words of economists, accountants, and engineers, for instance - which is fine and actually indispensable - but finds it so difficult to incorporate the thoughtful contribution of people like Northrop Frye in the running of our affairs. It is probably because the questions asked by thinkers like Northrop Fryeand the views they express are too far-reaching, require too much attention, involve too much change, and demand too much work. It is easier to turn around and go back to the immediate shortterm issues and short-sighted solutions. However, some twenty years ago, 14 TRIBUTE TO H. NORTHROP FRYE the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr Pearson, in a bold move, made Northrop Frye a member of the Canadian Radio and Television Commission. So we worked together for several years, five or seven, I think. He was a model member of that institution; assiduous, meticulous, reading masses of rather non-literary material and attending for days and days hearings and meetings that were not always intellectually stimulating. Maintaining that perceptiveness and sense of humour that we all know, but always respectful of the business at hand and the people involved. He talked and wrote about Homer, the Bible, Blake, and Shakespeare. He was also intellectually passionate about Canadian writers and painters and wrote some of the most perceptive thoughts about Canadians that I am aware of. We will continue to cherish his wisdom, but I think he would like us to remember also his sense of humour. As for instance, something sadly prophetic perhaps that he said in the following paragraph in 1977, 'Identity in Canada has always had something about it of a centrifugal movement into far distance, of clothes on a growing giant coming apart at the seams, of an elastic about to snap. Stephen Leacock's famous hero who rode off rapidly in all directions was unmistakably Canadian.' Norrie Frye was very much a realist, but in no way was he a pessimist. There was a profound sense of interior confidence about him and in his writing, as in his description of Canada, which he says was an inarticulate space...