anatomy

anatomy, in literature, the separating or dividing of a topic into parts for detailed examination or analysis. Among the better-known examples are John Lyly’s Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit and Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. The literary critic Northrop Frye, in his book Anatomy of Criticism, narrowed the definition of the word to mean a work resembling a Menippean satire, or one in which a mass of information is brought to bear on the subject being satirized, usually a particular attitude or type of behaviour. The word is from the Greek anatomḗ, “dissection.”