Talk:The Anxiety of Influence

Style
Shouldn't there be a discussion on the style of 'The Anxiety of Influence'? It seems to be almost poetic...or opaque.

Gendering reading
Isn't Bloom's reading fundamentally about male poets, as opposed to poets in general? I mean isn't, psychoanalytically, the "anxiety of influence" the anxiety of threatened castration? Thus, doesn't this article give a misleading perspective, by presenting Bloom's work as an analysis of "poets", when it really is an analysis of "male poets", or even, more accurately, only certain "male poets"? (I mean, if we read Bloom as saying that poets write out of fear of castration, and Maxwell as saying that poets write out of the desire for it, that is only a contradiction if they are commenting on the same people.) --SJK (talk) 17:38, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Eh. I mean, yes, Blooms theory is easily applied to male poets... and is essentially written within the parameters of an Oedipedal complex, however, I'm not sure that explicitly mentioning male poets is the way to go. His theory really applies universally.Strombollii (talk) 04:59, 27 November 2008 (UTC)