American Literature and Harold Bloom's Theory of Literary Influence

Abstract

This paper tries to apply Harold Bloom's theory of influence to Anglo-American literary relations. To achieve this, it has first outlined and then applied Bloom's six ratios which characterize literary relationships to the dialectic between American literature and English literature, between American and English writers. These ratios include: "Clinamen", which suggests a process of "swerving' from the precursor; "tessera" which intimates a reversionary movement of "completion" of the precursor; "kenosis", which indicates an "emptying" of the self in relation to the precursor; "daemonization", which implies the extraction, countering, and celebration of an "alien", though present, element in the precursor; "askesis", which denotes an effort of "self-purgation" aimed at attaining a sacred solitude against the precursor; and, finally "apophrades", which depicts an uncanny "return" of the precursor, for now the mature latecomer seems, strangely enough, the true author of the precursor's characteristic works.The paper also shows that all American writers have been affected by the English and European traditions and by the American tradition as well. Though the general tendency is to deny any such influence, some poets are ready to acknowledge their indebtedness. Along the way, some poets may choose not to join in this battle against the literary precursors and instead, look backward to established European and English models. Ironically, such writers have not been able to achieve great fame for, according to Bloom, a "strong" poet should embrace the task of sinning against the precursor whereas the "weak" or minor poet skirts the issue of his literary belatedness by accepting the influence of prior canonical masters within the sanctioned literary tradition.