The Anxiety Of Influence

Harold Bloom, a world-famous American critic, is one of the leading figures in the field of literary criticism. In his The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry written in1973, he challenges the commonplace notion that literary tradition is a benign source on modern poets and considers it a huge barrier to the creative originality. In his opinion, literary influence is always accompanied by anxiety. In the writing process the latecomers gain inspiration and nourishment from the precursors and at the same time they inevitably suffer the anxiety of influence. The latecomers must forge an original poetic vision to overcome the anxiety of influence and guarantee their survival.As one of the most prominent American poets in the twentieth century, with her incessant quest for poetry creation, Sylvia Plath wins a place in the poetry world. In her writing process, Plath is not immune to the pull of Ted Hughes’poetry. On the one hand, she borrows inspiration, such as images, themes, and rhymes from Hughes; on the other hand, the perimeters of her art are greatly restricted by his poetry. With the failure of The Colossus, she anxiously finds herself in the shadow of Hughes. In order to extricate herself from Hughesian conception of nature and find her own voice, Plath begins to extensively adopt the myth of Daphne to express her desire to break through the barrier of Hughes’constraint; her beekeeping poems in a more obvious way embody her confidence to overcome Hughes’influence;"Ariel" even directly doubts Hughes’creative concepts and challenges his authority. Then, the publication of Ariel in1965establishes her fame as one of the most influential poets in20th century.The thesis, utilizing the anxiety of influence as a theory, examines Plath’s poetry from1956to her suicide in1963, as well as her journals, correspondence to her mother and friends, to track her writing in relation to Ted Hughes, revealing the influence and anxiety presented in Plath’s poetry, and how she has truly succeeded in breaking away from Hughes’influence and become a strong poet.The whole thesis consists of five parts: The introduction draws a sketch of Sylvia Plath and her works, provides a literature review on her poetry creation from home and abroad, and states the significance of the thesis.Chapter One investigates how Plath incorporates the elements of Hughes’poetry, such as images, themes, and rhymes and tones, into her poetry collection The Colossus through reappraising the similarities between Hughes’and Plath’s poetry creation.Chapter Two traces the anxiety Plath suffers in her writing process and her revisionary strategies for finding her own voice and identity to free from Hughes’ constraints.Chapter Three explores the process of Plath’s trying to become the new strong poet. She makes some innovations on the arrangement of images, visual arts, and nursery-rhymes in Ariel to establish her fame. In this aspect, she transcends the anxiety of influence.The conclusion summarizes Plath’s pursuing process of overcoming the anxiety of Hughes, pointing out that the development of Plath’poetry writing is also a process in which she manages to overcome the influence of Hughes and become a strong poet. Moreover, the shortcomings of the thesis are put forward for the sake of further study and improvement.