Abstract: The controversy of theoretical canonization is essentially a dispute between essentialism and constructivism. Nevertheless, one effective way to suspend the dispute is to search for specific principlesof belief in individual cases. As one of the most important works in Western theoretical cannon, Northrop Frye’s The Anatomy of Criticism was hotly debated among scholars ever sincethe 1950s. The focus of the discussion shifts with the development of Western literary theory. The process of Frye’s canonization can be categorized in two stages of “canonization” and “decanonization,” which, corresponding to the rise and decline of his theory’s reception,is indicative of the change of the logicof Western critical thought. In the time of “after theory,” the humanistic inclination in Frye’s theory maintains its readership andensures its canonical position in the culturalinstitution.

Key words: canonization, decanonization, canonicity, Northrop Frye, humanism