Harold Bloom

This introduction to the American literary critic Harold Bloom, and his "anxiety of choice" explores the paradoxical shifts between theory and poetry which mark his writing. It outlines Bloom's concentration on a particular part of Romanticism, the thesis of the anxiety of influence, his revisionary version of hermeneutics and more. Each chapter includes a specially chosen test reading in which a relevant example of Bloom's practice of interpretation is discussed in relation to his theory.