The Anxiety of Influence by Harold Bloom
"The Anxiety of Influence," a significant work by Harold Bloom, explores the complex dynamics of originality and influence within the realm of poetry. Bloom addresses a central dilemma faced by poets: how to reconcile their creative processes with the overwhelming legacies of the poets who came before them. He introduces a psychological framework that articulates how poets can navigate the pressures of predecessor influence, ultimately striving to assert their own unique voices. The book is structured around a six-step model that outlines the development of an independent poet, suggesting that each step builds upon the previous one.
Bloom’s analysis is deeply rooted in the thoughts of philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and psychologists like Sigmund Freud, emphasizing the internal struggles poets face. Notably, he highlights John Milton as a pivotal figure who approached poetic creation with a degree of independence, albeit not entirely free from earlier influences. The text primarily focuses on British poets from the Romantic era forward, examining their creative processes rather than the literary merits of their works. Through this examination, "The Anxiety of Influence" provides insight into the psychological complexities of poetic creation, enhancing readers' understanding of both the art form and the individual poets.
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Subject Terms
The Anxiety of Influence by Harold Bloom
First published: 1973
Type of work: Literary criticism
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 poet creates himself, essentially eliminating in his own canon of works the image of the poets who have gone before him and developing a strength and originality in his own being, making it appear that the poets who preceded him were in fact his heirs and not he theirs.
The work is in essence a meditation. Bloom begins with the simple question of how a poet functions as a creative originator while laboring under the burden of the greatness of the poets before him. From this point Bloom builds a careful psychological account of how the poet functions. This pattern for the development of the truly independent poet has roots in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Each poet considered is assumed to have had one major precursor. The pressure of this precursor’s influence must be confronted and eliminated by the emerging poet if he is not to be crushed by it and reduced to a marginal level of creativity. How the poet manages to mitigate this influence and by his own hand make his work an independent creation is Bloom’s principal concern.
John Milton is seen as the last great poet who developed a poetic voice almost entirely free from the influence of those who came before him. Yet even Milton was not totally free, since he had to contend with the influence of great epic poets such as Vergil and Homer. Seeing Milton as the most recent breaking point in the chain of poetic influence, Bloom focuses on the poets who have followed him. The poets examined are primarily British, with a few Americans included, and for the most part they are major figures from the time of the early Romantics onward. Writers who preceded William Blake, with the exception of Milton, are almost entirely ignored, although it is implicit in the book that Bloom’s concept of the poet would apply equally to pre-Romantics. The poets’ works are mentioned only briefly as examples of the obvious influence of one author on another. What is being considered is the working psyche of the emerging poet, not the literary quality of the texts he eventually produces.
The form of the book reflects a careful, step-by-step analysis of the process by which poets create their own voices and achieve greatness. The development of the poet is divided into six steps. Each of these steps is examined in an individual chapter, and each step is assumed to be dependent on the successful completion of the step that precedes it. This point-by-point development is broken in the middle of the book by a short chapter in which Bloom supports his theory of antithetical criticism. In a rather extensive introduction that precedes the main body of the book, Bloom explains the terms that he uses in expounding his theory. The entire body of work is bracketed by two short poems that serve as a prologue and epilogue and exemplify the point that the author is attempting to develop.
Critical Context
Historically, literary criticism has looked at the specific works of individual authors and has attempted to judge them as good or bad based on a given set of aesthetic standards established for the art form. This view of the function of criticism has changed dramatically, particularly during the twentieth century. Critics have changed their priorities and have begun to consider such questions as how a poet functions and what a poet is. Harold Bloom has been in the vanguard of the attempt to understand how a poet functions.
Poets are not created in isolation, totally independent of the society that surrounds them. They are subject to a variety of influences, both physical and mental. They are aware of the poetry of those who preceded them, and this poetry creates a natural anxiety within them. How do they produce original poetry, burdened as they are with the influence of the past? The Anxiety of Influence carefully considers this question and postulates a theory of how the poet realizes the existence of this influence and defeats it, ultimately achieving an independent voice. As a result, the reader is given a deeper understanding of the workings of the poetic mind and, tangentially, a deeper appreciation of the poet’s work.
Bibliography
Culler, Jonathan. “Reading and Misreading,” in The Yale Review. LXV (October, 1975), pp. 88-95.
de Man, Paul. Review in Comparative Literature. XXVI (Summer, 1974), pp. 269-275.
Hartman, Geoffrey H. “Way in Heaven,” in Diacritics. III (Spring, 1973), pp. 41-56.
Mudrick, Marvin. “Bloom, Bloom, Go Out the Room!” in Harper’s Magazine. CCLXV (August, 1982), pp. 65-68.
Vendler, Helen. “The Poetics of Power,” in The New Republic. CLXXXVI (February 17, 1982), p. 31.
Wieseltier, Leon. “Summoning Up the Kabbalah,” in The New York Review of Books. XXIII (February 19, 1976), pp. 27-31.
Wood, Michael. “In the Literary Jungle,” in The New York Review of Books. XXII (April 17, 1975), pp. 15-18.