anxiety of influence
E294641
Anxiety of influence is Harold Bloom’s influential literary theory concept describing how poets and writers struggle creatively under the burden of their powerful precursors.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| anxiety of influence canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2745441 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: anxiety of influence Context triple: [Harold Bloom, notableConcept, anxiety of influence]
-
A.
The Age of Anxiety
The Age of Anxiety is a long poem by W. H. Auden that explores the spiritual and psychological dislocation of individuals in the modern, postwar world.
-
B.
The Concept of Anxiety
The Concept of Anxiety is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard that explores the nature of anxiety as a fundamental aspect of human freedom, sin, and existential choice.
-
C.
The Agony of the Mind
The Agony of the Mind is a sculptural work by Swedish artist Carl Milles that powerfully explores inner psychological struggle and emotional torment through expressive, modernist forms.
-
D.
The Neurotic Constitution
The Neurotic Constitution is a foundational work in individual psychology in which Alfred Adler outlines his theory of neurosis as a response to feelings of inferiority and the striving for superiority.
-
E.
The Art Spirit
The Art Spirit is a seminal 1923 book by American painter and teacher Robert Henri that compiles his teachings on art, creativity, and the artist’s life.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: anxiety of influence Target entity description: Anxiety of influence is Harold Bloom’s influential literary theory concept describing how poets and writers struggle creatively under the burden of their powerful precursors.
-
A.
The Age of Anxiety
The Age of Anxiety is a long poem by W. H. Auden that explores the spiritual and psychological dislocation of individuals in the modern, postwar world.
-
B.
The Concept of Anxiety
The Concept of Anxiety is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard that explores the nature of anxiety as a fundamental aspect of human freedom, sin, and existential choice.
-
C.
The Agony of the Mind
The Agony of the Mind is a sculptural work by Swedish artist Carl Milles that powerfully explores inner psychological struggle and emotional torment through expressive, modernist forms.
-
D.
The Neurotic Constitution
The Neurotic Constitution is a foundational work in individual psychology in which Alfred Adler outlines his theory of neurosis as a response to feelings of inferiority and the striving for superiority.
-
E.
The Art Spirit
The Art Spirit is a seminal 1923 book by American painter and teacher Robert Henri that compiles his teachings on art, creativity, and the artist’s life.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
aesthetic theory concept
ⓘ
critical theory concept ⓘ literary theory concept ⓘ |
| appliedTo |
Romantic poets such as Keats
ⓘ
Romantic poets such as Shelley ⓘ Romantic poets such as Wordsworth ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
poets
ⓘ
writers ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Harold Bloom
ⓘ
Psychoanalytic criticism ⓘ Romanticism ⓘ
surface form:
Romantic poetry
revisionary criticism ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | notions of purely autonomous originality ⓘ |
| coreIdea |
literary creation is shaped by a struggle with earlier influential authors
ⓘ
originality emerges through conflict with tradition ⓘ strong poets experience creative anxiety in relation to powerful precursors ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| field |
Romanticism studies
ⓘ
intertextuality studies ⓘ literary criticism ⓘ poetics ⓘ |
| firstDescribedIn |
The Anxiety of Influence
ⓘ
surface form:
The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry
|
| focusesOn |
creative response to literary tradition
ⓘ
relations between later poets and earlier poets ⓘ |
| hasAuthor | Harold Bloom ⓘ |
| hasConcept |
agonistic struggle
ⓘ
belatedness ⓘ influence-as-conflict ⓘ misreading ⓘ precursor ⓘ revisionary ratio ⓘ strong poet ⓘ |
| hasCreator | Harold Bloom ⓘ |
| hasReception |
controversial for its emphasis on agonistic influence
ⓘ
highly influential in Anglo-American literary criticism ⓘ |
| influenced |
canon formation debates
ⓘ
late 20th-century literary theory ⓘ poetic theory ⓘ studies of intertextuality ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Friedrich Nietzsche
ⓘ
Ralph Waldo Emerson ⓘ Romantic poets ⓘ Sigmund Freud ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainWork |
The Anxiety of Influence
ⓘ
surface form:
The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry
|
| publicationYear | 1973 ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
A Map of Misreading
ⓘ
Poetry and Repression ⓘ The Western Canon ⓘ |
| theoreticalBasis |
agonistic model of literary history
ⓘ
psychoanalytic model of Oedipal struggle ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: anxiety of influence Description of subject: Anxiety of influence is Harold Bloom’s influential literary theory concept describing how poets and writers struggle creatively under the burden of their powerful precursors.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.