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Clinamen, Tessera, and the Anxiety of Influence: Swerving from and Completing George MacDonald

Clinamen, Tessera, and the Anxiety of Influence: Swerving from and Completing George MacDonald JOSH LONG n 1973, the year J.R.R. Tolkien passed away, Harold Bloom released his seminal work The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. Although Bloom's book has had a profound effect on the topic of literary influence, his theory has received minimal attention within the field of Tolkien studies. Faye Ringel takes a Bloomian approach in her article "Women Fantasists: In the Shadow of the Ring," though, ultimately, her article focuses primarily on those whom Tolkien influenced. Diana Glyer also considers The Anxiety of Influence in the final chapter of her book-length study The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community; however, she is more interested in expanding the notion of literary influence rather than evaluating how Tolkien's fiction fits into Bloom's paradigm. This article serves to demonstrate that Bloom's theory is relevant to both Tolkien's creative journey in general and Smith of Wootton Major in particular. In The Anxiety of Influence, Bloom develops six revisionary ratios-- ways in which one poet influences another. I am only interested in the first two--clinamen and tessera. The former might be best described as a corrective swerve, a turning away from a precursor poet http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Tolkien Studies West Virginia University Press

Clinamen, Tessera, and the Anxiety of Influence: Swerving from and Completing George MacDonald

Tolkien Studies , Volume 6 (1) – Jun 14, 2009

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Publisher
West Virginia University Press
Copyright
Copyright © West Virginia University Press
ISSN
1547-3163
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Abstract

JOSH LONG n 1973, the year J.R.R. Tolkien passed away, Harold Bloom released his seminal work The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. Although Bloom's book has had a profound effect on the topic of literary influence, his theory has received minimal attention within the field of Tolkien studies. Faye Ringel takes a Bloomian approach in her article "Women Fantasists: In the Shadow of the Ring," though, ultimately, her article focuses primarily on those whom Tolkien influenced. Diana Glyer also considers The Anxiety of Influence in the final chapter of her book-length study The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community; however, she is more interested in expanding the notion of literary influence rather than evaluating how Tolkien's fiction fits into Bloom's paradigm. This article serves to demonstrate that Bloom's theory is relevant to both Tolkien's creative journey in general and Smith of Wootton Major in particular. In The Anxiety of Influence, Bloom develops six revisionary ratios-- ways in which one poet influences another. I am only interested in the first two--clinamen and tessera. The former might be best described as a corrective swerve, a turning away from a precursor poet

Journal

Tolkien StudiesWest Virginia University Press

Published: Jun 14, 2009

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