The Anxiety of Influence

Name: The Anxiety of Influence
Author: Harold Bloom

by Harold Bloom

Theory that poets achieve greatness by creatively responding to precursor poets

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About the author

Harold Bloom

American literary critic whose The Anxiety of Influence proposed that poets struggle against their predecessors in a competitive, Oedipal relationship. The Western Canon controversially argued for the primacy of aesthetic excellence. He was the most prominent and controversial defender of the literary canon in the culture wars.

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