A Map of Misreading

work by Bloom

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July 16, 2026

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A Map of Misreading is a significant work by American literary critic Harold Bloom. In this book, Bloom presents his theory that poets engage with their predecessors by deliberately misreading them. This concept is central to his broader ideas about literary influence, suggesting that creativity arises from a dynamic struggle with existing works. Bloom's work, including A Map of Misreading, explores the complex relationships between authors and the literary traditions they inherit, emphasizing how new literature is formed through a process of creative reinterpretation and "misreading".12

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American literature
Theory
…Anxiety of Influence (1973) and A Map of Misreading (1975), Bloom reached a wide audience with The Western Canon (1994) and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), both of which explored and defended the Western literary tradition.
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…Anxiety of Influence (1973) and A Map of Misreading (1975), Bloom reached a wide audience with The Western Canon (1994) and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), both of which explored and defended the Western literary tradition.
Read More

Harold Bloom
…Anxiety of Influence (1973) and A Map of Misreading (1975), he systematized one of his most original theories: that poetry results from poets deliberately misreading the works that influence them. Figures of Capable Imagination (1976) and several other works of the next decade develop and illustrate this theme.
Read More
…Anxiety of Influence (1973) and A Map of Misreading (1975), he systematized one of his most original theories: that poetry results from poets deliberately misreading the works that influence them. Figures of Capable Imagination (1976) and several other works of the next decade develop and illustrate this theme.
Read More