bookpresentation bloom's the western canon
TRANSCRIPT
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The Western Canon
By Harold Bloom
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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
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
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
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Dante and Shakespeare
• Cognitive strength
• Linguistic energy
• Power of invention
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
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
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
School of Resentment
• Use of literature to promote social agendas
• Bloom argues against this: instead aesthetic pleasure and self-insight
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Politics
• Should have no place in literary criticism
• Reducement to ideology: poem becomes social document
• Preserving poetry as fully and purely as possible
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The western canon
• Standard of measurement• Foundation for cultural thinking and individual thinking
• Rarely new works added
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Context
• 1994• 1990s Postmodernism • Questioning basic concepts of knowledge, science, education, literature and tradition
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
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
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Connection with modern art
• 20th century: new art, new music, new literature
Bloom: cherish western traditions and cultural foundation
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Thank you for your attention!Any questions?
Why is the existence of the western canon important and what criticism may be given?