Author: HUANG Feng, Assitant Professor, School of Literature and Media, Taishan College.
Abstract:
A close reading of Harold Bloom`s works shows that Bloom’s literary criticism has clear Gnostic features. Ancient Gnostic thought had a significant influence on Bloomian terms, such as “the anxiety of influence” “strong poets” and “misreading”. It is therefore necessary to re-examine the two-layer meaning of “The Anxiety of Influence” from a Gnostic perspective. Firstly, the superficial meaning of the term refers to the psychological burden that newcomers feel as a result of the objective influence of their predecessors’ achievements, which negatively hinders writing. Secondly, the deeper meaning of the term refers to the Gnostic “inspiration” of all individuals, who can demonstrate their originality by constantly rebelling against the anxiety of prior symbols (i.e., misreading), and in this respect the term has a positive constructive meaning. For Chinese readers, we should not only pay attention to the potential Gnostic meaning in the term "the anxiety of influence," but also note the important influence of the deconstructive/constructive thinking it contains in expanding textual connotations and searching for the meaning of individual existence.
Keywords:
Harold Bloom, Gnostic, The Anxiety of Influence, Strong Poet, misreading
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