Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry

Graham Allen (University College Cork)
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Harold Bloom's

The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry

is one of the most cited and debated texts to have emerged in the field of Anglo-American literary theory. The object of a huge amount of debate and comment since its first publication in 1973,

The Anxiety of Influence

has changed for good the manner in which critics working on literary influence think about that subject. Students of Romantic poetry, or indeed of modern literature in general, will find it hard to proceed through their studies without coming across references to Bloom's seminal text.

Newcomers to the text will most probably experience it in its second Oxford University Press edition, published in 1997, which includes a lengthy preface written by Bloom for this edition. The preface is subtitled “The Anguish of

2481 words

Citation: Allen, Graham. "The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 November 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1612, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1612 The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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