Divisions on a Ground explained

Divisions on a Ground: Essays on Canadian Culture is a collection of essays by Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye, edited by James Polk and published in 1982. The collection includes lectures, addresses and previously published articles by Frye. Divisions on a Ground presents Frye's theorizing about Canada with respect to three main themes: Canadian literary writing, university education in Canada and internationally, and a more general "social order" perspective. This collection diverges from Frye's better-known in its approach to Canada in that it does not present the "Canadian imagination" in isolation, but rather as one of several components of Canadian society identity.

Contents

I Writing

• Culture as Interpenetration

(address read to UNESCO's International Council of Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, September 16, 1977)

• Across the River and Out of the Trees

(from University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 1 (Fall 1980) and The Arts in Canada: The Last Fifty Years edited by W. J. Keith and B.-Z. Shek, pp. 1-4. University of Toronto Press 1980)

• National Consciousness in Canadian Culture

(address read to the Royal Society of Canada, June 7, 1976)

• Sharing the Continent

(from "Canadian Culture Today," an address read to the "Twentieth Century Canadian Culture Symposium", Washington, D. C. February 2, 1977)

• "Conclusion" to Literary History of Canada Second Edition

(Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English Second Edition, ed. Carl Klinck, University of Toronto Press, 1976)

II Teaching

• Teaching the Humanities Today

(from "The Presidential Address", delivered at the 91st annual convention of the Modern Language Association in New York City, December 27, 1976)

• Humanities in a New World

(address delivered for the installation of Claude Bissell as President of the University of Toronto, November 22, 1958)

• The Writer and the University

(from "Culture and the National Will", Convocation Address, Carleton University, May 17, 1957)

• The Teacher's Source of Authority

(address read at the American Educational Research Association Conference, March 30, 1978)

III The Social Order

• The Definition of a University

(a lecture at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, November 4, 1970)

• The Ethics of Change

(address given at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, November 8, 1968)

• Canada: New World Without Revolution

(address given at the Royal Society Symposium, October 7, 1975)

• The Rear-View Mirror: Notes Toward A Future

(from an address read on the occasion of the Royal Bank Award, Toronto, Ontario, September 18, 1978)

References

Frye, Northrop. Divisions on a Ground: Essays on Canadian Culture ed. James Polk. Toronto: Anansi Press, 1982.