bookpresentation bloom's the western canon

The Western Canon

By Harold Bloom

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Harold Bloom

• 1930 – present• American literary critic and Professor of Humanities at Yale University

• Wrote 20+ books on literary criticism


Claim

• Aesthetic value is autonomous from morality and politics

• Aesthetic originality as ‘entry ticket’ to canon

• Analysis of 26 EU-US writers, from Shakespeare to Beckett


Dante and Shakespeare

• Cognitive strength

• Linguistic energy

• Power of invention


Chronological periods

• Theocratic age: from ancient Near East to Middle Ages

• Aristocratic age: from Dante to Goethe

• Democratic age: 19th century• Chaotic age: 20th century


School of Resentment

• Use of literature to promote social agendas

• Bloom argues against this: instead aesthetic pleasure and self-insight


Politics

• Should have no place in literary criticism

• Reducement to ideology: poem becomes social document

• Preserving poetry as fully and purely as possible


The western canon

• Standard of measurement• Foundation for cultural thinking and individual thinking

• Rarely new works added


Context

• 1994• 1990s Postmodernism • Questioning basic concepts of knowledge, science, education, literature and tradition


Reception

• “Probably the most celebrated cultural critic in the U.S.”

• “America’s best known man of letters”

• But also in the middle of literary controversy


Connection with modern art

• 20th century: new art, new music, new literature

Bloom: cherish western traditions and cultural foundation


Thank you for your attention!Any questions?

Why is the existence of the western canon important and what criticism may be given?

bookpresentation bloom's the western canon

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