Harold Bloom and the Western Canon in the Indian Context

Abstract

In 1994, Bloom published The Western Canon, a survey of the major literary works of Europe and the Americas since the fourteenth century, focusing on twenty six works he considered sublime and representative of their nations and of the Western canon. Besides analyses of the canon’s various representative works , the major concern of the volume is reclaiming literature from those he refers to as the “School of resentment”, the mostly academic critics who espouse a social purpose in reading. Bloom believes that the goals of reading must be solitary, aesthetic pleasure and self-insight rather than the “forces of resentments” goal of improvement of one’s society, which he casts as an absurd aim. In a poor country like India, Justice Markandaya Katju observes that, are for social purpose alone can be acceptable today. Artists and writers must join the ranks of those who are struggling for a better India. They must inspire the people through their writings against oppression and injustice. However, today there is hardly any good art and literature. Where is the Sharat Chandra or Premchand or Faiz of today asks Katju? Where is the Kabir or Dickens of today? There seems to be an artistic and literary vacuum. Everything seems to have become commercialised. Writers write not to highlight the plight of the masses but to earn some money. Hence, in a country like India which is going through a period of social change, Harold Bloom is not relevant. India is passing through transitional period, transition from feudal agricultural society to modern industrial society. We are presently neither totally modern. We are somewhere in between. The transition period is a very painful and agonizing period in history.