Defending And Persevering In The Canons

Harold Bloom who is a professor of Yale University holds an important position in current US literature theory circle. He has unique talent in literature and his works reach to 20 in all his life, forming his huge theory system. In the 1970s, He has been known for his tetralogy: The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Peotry, A Map of Misreading, Kabbalah and Criticism, Poetry and repression: Revision from Blake to Stevens. From then on, He has formed his practical criticism theory called influence poetics and misreading theory based on influence and misreading. In 1990s, He published many theory works and explained systematically his opinion on literature canons especially in Western Canon, Genius, How to read and write. It is the concrete utilization of influence poetics and misreading theory in literary criticism.In the post-modernism surroundings, the traditional research on literature becomes marginal. And the angles of literature research also become diverse. In this situation, there are different even completely contrary opinions on judgment standard of literature canons and construction standard of canon system in theory circle. For example, essentialism and construction theory are two important representatives of canon debate. Bloom denies explaining literature canons from the elements that are beyond literature itself, such as politics, society and sex. He insists the essence of literature canon exist in esthetic originality. He constructs his huge literature canon theory system whose master line lies in writers' mutual influence relationship based on influence poetics and misreading theory.This thesis puts emphasis on theory connotation of literature canon from the sides of society cultural context and theory basis. And he also tries to do some meaning and value judgment on it. Bloom emphasizes the importance of literature originality. He considers the essence of literature canon lies in esthetic value originality and defammarization, and also lies in ingenious fusion of tradition and originality. The writer gains this originality from misreading the seniors' works and competing with the seniors. Bloom imitates Vico's three-stage theory of circulation of the social history and he innovats Vico's division of literature development. And he divides the history of western literature canon development into three stages: aristocrat time, democratic time and chaotic time. This huge literature canon history is neither completely based on year order nor on simple display of writer. His theory is based on the mutual influence relationship between writers, especially the relationship between Shakespeare and other writers. He puts Shakespeare to the central point, and he takes the relationship between the writers as fiducial mark to construct his unique literature canon theory where he takes the writers' birth ages and nationalities as abscissa axis, the writers' lofty and representation as ordinate axis. Bloom holds a pessimistic view to the literature and literature canon. As a holder of esthetic independency, He shows his hatred to the politicization, socialization and moralization of literature and he perseveres in literature esthetic lonely. But Bloom doesn't think the literature and literature canon would perish. He raises his doubt and criticism about the politics, moral and social function of literature canon. He thinks the biggest goal of reading literature canon is esthetic feeling and esthetic strength. He opposes the universal feeling of literature esthetic. In contrary, he emphasizes the personality and privacy of literature reading.In the modern times where Multiculturalism is in vogue and literature esthetic value is in shortage, Bloom's literature canon theory becomes opposition to the contemporary literature research. And it makes the academic circle rethink the esthetic element of literature esthetic. In addition, the construction method of Bloom's literature canon theory provides a completely new angle of view to contemporary literature history research. But Bloom's literature canon theory is not completely perfect. For example, the complete denial to multi-angle of view research of literature and multiculturalism, the complete neglect to the enlightened function and social function of literature canon, the Idolizing and mystery of the literary production and reading and so on.