Harold Bloom's "Theory of Influence" and its Georgian Explications

Abstract

The essence of Harold Bloom's theory of influence is: Literature is inherently antagonistic, as evidenced by the fact that each author rivals and struggles with his predecessor. The poet radically transforms the texts of his predecessors, which Bloom calls "misreading" and which, in turn, is driven by "fear of influence". This fear is realized in the form of peculiar tropes or tropes of "fear of influence" in the new text. That is why fear and anxiety are always rhetorically recorded in new works created in the wrestling with previous texts. An explication of Bloom's theory is Zaza Shatirishvili's early text, in particular his monograph Galaktion's Poetics and Rhetoric, in which the author discusses Galaktion Tabidze’s birth as a "powerful poet" in the context of Theory of InfluenceFrom 1915 onwards, famous Georgian poet Galaktion Tabidze created texts confirmin g that he had become a "powerful poet" after he had been the epigone of Akaki Tsereteli, a "powerful poet" from XIX century. It is after Akaki's death that the invariant motif of the "dead (dead) father" appears in Galaktion's poetry. For Galaktion, the only authentic self-title or name is "King", which was shared throughout the subsequent poetic tradition. If Akaki is read behind the "dead father", the king-poet is, in a sense, a new Rustaveli - the triumphant alter ego of Galaktion.