The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life

Harold Bloom

Yale University Press, 2011 - Literary Criticism - 357 pages

"Literary criticism, as I attempt to practice it," writes Harold Bloom in "The Anatomy of Influence," "is in the first place literary, that is to say, personal and passionate."

For more than half a century, Bloom has shared his profound knowledge of the written word with students and readers. In this, his most comprehensive and accessible study of influence, Bloom leads us through the labyrinthine paths which link the writers and critics who have informed and inspired him for so many years. The result is "a critical self-portrait," a sustained meditation on a life lived with and through the great works of the Western canon: "Why has influence been my lifelong obsessive concern? Why have certain writers found me and not others? What is the end of a literary life?"

Featuring extended analyses of Bloom's most cherished poets--Shakespeare, Whitman, and Crane--as well as inspired appreciations of Emerson, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats, Ashbery, and others, "The Anatomy of Influence" adapts Bloom's classic work "The Anxiety of Influence" to show us what great literature is, how it comes to be, and why it matters. Each chapter maps startling new literary connections that suddenly seem inevitable once Bloom has shown us how to listen and to read. A fierce and intimate appreciation of the art of literature on a scale that the author will not again attempt, "The" "Anatomy of Influence" follows the sublime works it studies, inspiring the reader with a sense of something ever more about to be.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - chaosmogony - LibraryThing

I'm going to waffle here, because I didn't exactly finish this one, nor did I exactly hate it. I got about halfway through, and mostly enjoyed the sections on Shakespeare as he fits into Bloom's theme ...

THE ANATOMY OF INFLUENCE: Literature as a Way of Life

User Review  - Jane Doe - Kirkus

The distinguished critic again examines the interactions among writers that have been the main focus of his attention since The Anxiety of Influence (1973).As in that seminal work, Bloom (Humanities ...

About the author

Harold Bloom was born on July 11, 1930 in New York City. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Cornell in 1951 and his Doctorate from Yale in 1955. After graduating from Yale, Bloom remained there as a teacher, and was made Sterling Professor of Humanities in 1983. Bloom's theories have changed the way that critics think of literary tradition and has also focused his attentions on history and the Bible. He has written over twenty books and edited countless others. He is one of the most famous critics in the world and considered an expert in many fields. In 2010 he became a founding patron of Ralston College, a new institution in Savannah, Georgia, that focuses on primary texts. His works include Fallen Angels, Till I End My Song: A Gathering of Last Poems, Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life and The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of The King James Bible.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life
• Author: Harold Bloom
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 2011
• ISBN: 0300179901, 9780300179903
• Length: 357 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Books & Reading; Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory