Western Canon: Great Writers and Immortal Works

Author: Bloom
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Shakespeare or Cervantes, Homer or Dante, Chaucer or Rabelais—reading their works truly serves to enhance the growth of the inner self. Deep engagement with the classics does not make one better or worse, nor does it make a citizen more useful or harmful. The inner dialogue of the soul is essentially not a social reality. The entire significance of Western classics lies in teaching people to make good use of their solitude, which ultimately takes the form of a confrontation between a person and their own death. With noble courage and astonishing scholarship, The Western Canon passionately demonstrates why certain writers have managed to escape the oblivion of time, which erases all human achievements. It inspires hope that what has always been cherished by humanity will continue to be cherished by our descendants. — The New York Times Book Review
Literature has been abandoned due to the allure of post-structuralist theory and social engineering. When everything else has strangely fallen silent, Bloom, in this provocative and eloquent work, poses the only truly relevant question about the classics: "At this moment in history, what will those who still wish to read will read?" — Stanford Pines This brilliant work reinvigorates the concept of the Western canon and brings back into view the most exemplary works that best represent it. At a time when reading culture is on the verge of extinction, this book will undoubtedly earn the praise of the discerning. — Richard Boorstein
Amid the rise of various trendy theories such as feminism, pluralism, cultural materialism, new historicism, and Afrocentrism, Harold Bloom stands against the tide, resisting the ideologicalization of literary criticism and reaffirming the indispensability of intellectual and aesthetic standards. In this book, Bloom champions the "autonomy of aesthetics" while upholding his theory of "the anxiety of influence," with Shakespeare as the center of the Western canon. By comparing Shakespeare with others, he examines twenty-plus first-class Western writers, from Dante and Chaucer to Cervantes, Joyce, Kafka, Borges, and Beckett, revealing the mystery of literary classics: they all arise from a masterful fusion of tradition and originality. This book provides a guide to understanding the great Western writers and their works over the centuries, undoubtedly sparking a desire to revisit the classics. But it is far more than just a must-read list of Western literature—it blends a love of scholarship with a passion for aesthetics, brilliantly and eloquently defending a unified and coherent literary culture that will, in the years to come, lead us to rediscover the joy of reading that the Western literary tradition has bestowed upon us.