The Anxiety of Influence (Masterplots II: Nonfiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Harold Bloom
- First Published: 1973
- Type of Work: Literary criticism
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction
- Subjects: Tradition, Literature, Poetry or poets, Writing, Individuality, Creative process, Meditation, Thought or thinking
Form and Content
One of the primary considerations in modern literary criticism is the question of how a poet deals with two major problems: How does he come to terms with the idea that all the great poetry has already been written, and how does he maintain his own sense of originality in the face of the influence that all preceding poets have had on him? Harold Bloom in The Anxiety of Influence deals with these two problems and proposes a critical theory of how the truly original poet deals with his predecessors. He develops in this book a psychological model of how a...
[The entire page is 1732 words long]
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