A Study Of Harold Bloom'S Poetics

Harold Bloom (1930-), who teaches as a Sterling Professor at Yale University,is one of the most influential critics and scholars in the contemporary Americanliterary scene. His overwhelming fame rests on his idiosyncratic theories and hisprolific work as a critic and an author rather than on his membership of the YaleSchool, or the pejorative yet well-known the Yale Mafia. Harold Bloom's poetics,deeply rooted in the exuberant, wealthy western literary history, is formulated by therevision of crucial notions like Romanticism, and the reinterpretation of so canonicalworks as those of William Shakespeare. His influence-misreading theories, initiatedin the 1970s and incessantly renewed, and his books such as the Book of J, theWestern Canon and Shakespeare—the Invention of Human, exerted a great impact onthe literary circle as well as the public. Until 2011, Harold Bloom have publishednearly 30 works, written the introductions for the Chelsea House's 500 WesternClassic Series, and edited several Norton anthologies of literature. In considerationof his great influence and inadequacy of the research toward his poetics, this thesisserves as a critique of all works in his career that lasts more than fifty years, athorough analysis of his theoretic contribution, and a discussion of problematicsaround his poetic theories and practices. The significance of studying Bloom'spoetics is to reconsider the route of literary theory and criticism, since thecontemporary literary scene is dominated by the socio-historically and politicallyoriented studies, such as cultural studies, western Marxism, feminism,post-colonialism, new historicism, etc., which depreciate literature as a subdivisionof social studies, leading to chaos amongst literary critics and theorists. Theaestheticism that Harold Bloom advocates provides an alternative to theideologically oriented literary theories, and another possibility of literary future.Furthermore, Bloom's theories and practices offer a reference to the growth ofChinese literary theories. Confronted with foreign resources, especially Frenchtheories, Bloom's insistence on and apology for American literature is another influence for Chinese literary criticism.The dissertation is divided into seven parts. The preface is a profile of Bloom'spersonal life and a brief review of Bloom's academic career, in order to depict adiscernible picture of his life and provide a background for his radical theoreticalstance. In addition, the preface introduces the purpose, significance and layout, theliterature review, and some innovative points.Chapter One analyses the social background, theoretic milieu, motivation andtheoretic sources. Firstly, the United States, undergoing dramatic changes in 1950sand 1960s, witnessed high tension and silence in society, and experienced theVietnam War, the booming of mass media, the insurgence of hippies, and politicalmovements of female and black groups, which compelled people to ponder theirindividual existence. Bloom's poetics was spurred by the literary theories andphilosophies that focus on human being's embarrassing existence. Secondly, in spiteof the social milieu, the course of literary theory development is more essential forBloom's formulation of theory. Bloom joined the"Go beyond New Criticism"chorus, after the New Criticism gained hegemony in British and American literarycriticism, whose methods were gradually becoming rigid and scientific, revealinginsolvable inner contradictions. Thirdly, because of sensing threat at his theoreticalidentity, Bloom takes an antithetical stance against his theoretical fathers and peertheorists. Bloom attempts to compete with Northrop Frye and M. H. Abrams, hispoetic fathers, creatively making use of their insights on English Romanticism.Bloom both uses and defends against Derrida's deconstructionism and Paul de Man'srhetorical reading methods. Fourthly, Bloom borrows heavily"the Will of Power","creativity"and tropes from Nietzsche, defense mechanism and family romancefrom Freud.Chapter Two mainly discusses Bloom's views of poetry, which is divided intofour subcategories—world, text, author and reader or critic, according to M. H.Abrams'conceptualization. On the nature of literature, Bloom holds that theessence of literature is the visionary and apocalyptic imagination. The originalityand strangeness which means the particularity and uniqueness and the features that makes readers find weirdness in familiar environment are also importantcharacteristics of strong literature, which brings readers into broader heterocosomand broadens the boundaries of reader's consciousness and horizon. Sublimity,which Bloom defines, is the aesthetic quality of work that arouses the difficultpleasure in the bosom of readers. Agon in literature, which is coordinated withother features, is another important characteristic feature of literature, which meansone poem needs to compete with the previous strong poems to obtain imaginativespace in literary history. Agon brings originality and aesthetic experiences offreedom and pleasure. With the above criteria of literature, Bloom extends thescope of literature, extinguishes the barriers between literature and philosophy,religion and criticism, and includes them into the broad category of literature. Atthe end of the chapter,"Death of author"is discussed, with which Harold Bloom isconcerned.Chapter Three places emphasis on the analysis of Bloom's view of poets. Interms of views of the world among poets, Blake and Shelley believe that poets needvision and apocalypse to predict the world of truth, create new myths to imposemeaning and form on the chaotic, immense world, rather than seeking it by erasingthe dualism of nature and man. In favor of William Blake and Percy ByssheShelley's view of world, Bloom holds that Nature is not the embodiment of truthand virtue, and that the ultimate truth transcends the natural world, which deniesWilliam Wordsworth's optimistic view of nature as the equivalent of truth. Also,Bloom adopts the Gnostic view of the world—negating and canceling the naturalworld, and combines it with the apocalyptic vision of English Romanticism.Furthermore, strongly opposing modernist and postmodernist view of author,Bloom insists that"poet as a poet","poet in a poet"—the poetic self of author orthe imagination or complex, multiple consciousness of the author—should be theauthorship in literature. In this sense, poets are classified into two groups—strongpoets and weak poets.Chapter Four focuses on the analysis and interpretation of Bloom's criticalmethods and critical practice. In regard to literary criticism, Bloom proposes that criticism has no difference in kind from literature, since they are fictional,imaginative, agonistic and full of rhetorical language. Also, Bloom contends thatliterary meaning does not derive from outside literature, or from inside literaryworks, and rather, it exists in the competitive relationship between a poem and aprevious poem, or a poet and his poetic father, according to the influence-anxietytheory. Since literary meaning does not exist within literary work, readers or criticsneed imagine the relationship between one poem and another poem, and imposemeaning upon poems by exerting"the Will of Power"and misreading therelationship. Hence, Bloom formulates a complex map of misreading, a revisionistway of reading. Bloom also put his critical methods into practice by analyzing allthe major writers in western history. His critical works on religious text andShakespeare are exemplary.Chapter Five is the interpretation of Bloom's view of poetic history. Bloom'sliterary history is the history of influence, following Freud's parricidal pattern ofthe family romance. In historical perspective, Bloom apparently opposes newhistoricism, denying the function of political, economic, cultural and ideologicalelements in construction of history, and asserts that literary history is the history ofpoet's inner struggle and psychological defenses. To Bloom, literary history islabyrinthine network of influence between great poets. Literary history is consistentwith the canon-formation, both of which is misreading. The last part of the chaptercompares and contrasts Bloom's and Hillis Miller's"end of literary history".Chapter Six evaluates the merits and demerits of Harold Bloom's poetics. On onehand, Bloom contributes much to the literary theories and literary criticism. Bloomemphasizes the author's subjectivity and creativity in literature and literarycriticism, rectifying the tendency of canceling self in various literary theories.Bloom's aestheticism provides an alternative method for the literary scene. Bloom'sview of literary history of influence and misreading is antithetical to evolutionaryhistory. On the other hand, there exist many demerits in Bloom's poetics. Forinstance, Bloom takes Blake's vision and apocalypse as the essential characteristicof literature, which idealized the redemptive role of literature. Agon, originality and strangeness highlight the uniqueness of literature and ignore the commensuratefeatures. According to this standard, many important writers such as T. S. Eliot,Ezra Pound and the Metaphysical poets, who are characterized by their impersonalfeatures, will be excluded in the literary tradition. In regard to authorship, Bloombelieve that the poetic self or poetic potential, free from the political, economicaland ideological influences, is the true source of poem, which severs the poet fromhis natural and social features. Bloom takes literary criticism as literary, amplifyingthe fictional and imaginative elements in theory. In terms of literary history,Bloom's history is closed and is not open up to non-traditionally classical writers,and also attempts to form a total history. Finally, the chapter discusses severalpolemics concerning the features of Bloom's poetics.The conclusion foucus the influences of Harold Bloom's poetics on Chinesecontemporary poetics. Harold Bloom's masterpieces are translated into Chinese,and some of his thoeries, such as misreading and canonization have already exertedgreat impact of Chinese literary criticism. However, Harold Bloom's value aremore than these. His view of poetry, strong poets and ciritical methods, view ofpoetic history and poetic tradition provide alternative approach to Chinesecontemporary poetics.