Books like The Western canon by Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom examines the Western literary tradition by focusing on the works of twenty‑six authors he considers central to the canon. He criticizes ideological approaches to criticism and decries the decline of intellectual and aesthetic standards, challenging movements such as multiculturalism, Marxism, feminism, neoconservatism, Afrocentrism, and New Historicism. Bloom argues that the autonomy of the aesthetic should guide literary evaluation, placing Shakespeare at the core of the canon. He contends that Shakespeare’s creation of character is unrivaled, influencing writers from Milton and Goethe to Ibsen, Joyce, and Beckett, while also noting the resistance of figures like Tolstoy and Freud. Bloom highlights how canonical works fuse originality with tradition, citing authors such as Dante, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens, Whitman, Dickinson, Proust, and contemporary Hispanic and Portuguese writers Borges, Neruda, and Pessoa. The book concludes with Bloom’s recommended list of essential writers and works, offering his definitive vision of the canon.

First publish date: 1994