Harold Bloom's

is one of the most cited and debated texts to have emerged in the field of Anglo-American literary theory. The object of a huge amount of debate and comment since its first publication in 1973,

has changed for good the manner in which critics working on literary influence think about that subject. Students of Romantic poetry, or indeed of modern literature in general, will find it hard to proceed through their studies without coming across references to Bloom's seminal text.

Newcomers to the text will most probably experience it in its second Oxford University Press edition, published in 1997, which includes a lengthy preface written by Bloom for this edition. The preface is subtitled “The Anguish of

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Citation: Allen, Graham. "The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 November 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1612, accessed 22 November 2024.]