World Book and Copyright Day – a symbolic anniversary
Every year on 23 April we mark World Book and Copyright Day. The date wasn’t chosen by chance: it was on that day in 1616 (according to the Julian calendar) that William Shakespeare died. And although more than four centuries have passed since his death, the influence of the brilliant playwright on our culture remains absolutely fundamental. But have you ever wondered how deep that influence runs?
According to one of the most important literary critics of the twentieth century, Shakespeare not only shaped theatre – he actually helped create who we are today.
Bloom’s thesis: How Shakespeare “invented” the human
In his 1998 book “Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human”, the American critic Harold Bloom advances a bold, almost provocative claim: Shakespeare “invented” the modern personality. Out of the 38 plays attributed to him, Bloom singles out as many as 24 as absolute masterpieces – works in which a revolution of human consciousness took place.
What exactly does this “invention” consist of? Bloom argues that before Shakespeare, literary characters developed mainly through action or divine intervention. Shakespeare’s figures, by contrast – Hamlet, Falstaff, King Lear, or Rosalind – gain depth thanks to a unique mechanism Bloom calls “overhearing oneself”.
Notice how it works in practice:
- Self-reflection: The characters listen to their own words and, on that basis, change their thinking and behaviour.
- Multi-dimensionality: They are not flat archetypes but individuals full of contradictions and inner conflicts.
- Universality: Their dilemmas, though rooted in a particular era, resonate with readers at every latitude.
A perfect example of this revolution is the famous line spoken by the Prince of Denmark: “What a piece of work is a man!” Hamlet not only describes the human condition – he subjects it to constant, critical analysis, becoming, in this sense, the first fully modern intellectual in the history of literature.
“The anxiety of influence“ and the defence of the “Western canon“
To fully understand Bloom’s argument, we have to look at his earlier work. In “The Anxiety of Influence“ (1973), Bloom presented a psychoanalytic theory of how writers relate to their predecessors. In his view, every great creator must grapple with an “anxiety” about the towering masters of the past. They do so through what Bloom calls “strong misreading” – deliberately reshaping and misinterpreting earlier works to make room for their own originality (a process he described through mechanisms such as clinamen, tessera, and kenosis).
Then, in his 1994 book “The Western Canon“, Bloom places Shakespeare at the absolute centre of the literary universe, presenting him as the point of reference for every later writer. The book was also an open argument with what Bloom dubbed the “school of resentment” – critics who judged literature purely through the lens of ideology, politics, feminism, or Marxism, while ignoring its autonomous aesthetic value.
Criticism, the charge of Eurocentrism, and Bloom’s counter-arguments
The idea that one English playwright “invented” the human could hardly pass without controversy – and it met with sharp criticism:
- The charge of Eurocentrism: Many scholars accused Bloom of narrowing the history of human consciousness to the Western cultural sphere.
- Ignoring historical context: Scholars such as James Shapiro questioned Bloom’s approach, pointing out that he largely ignores Shakespeare’s biography and the realities of the Elizabethan era.
- Postcolonial questions: Critics often cite “The Tempest“ and the character of Caliban as proof that Shakespeare can be read through the prism of power and oppression, not only universal psychology.
How did Bloom respond? His main counter-argument was the idea of cross-cultural empathy. He believed that Shakespeare’s greatness lies precisely in how his plays break through linguistic, racial, and historical barriers, allowing any reader to find a piece of their own humanity within them.
A legacy that still inspires
Whether or not we fully agree with Bloom, it’s hard to deny that Shakespeare is still alive in our culture. His influence reaches far beyond the stage and classic editions of his works, seeping into contemporary popular culture. One proof is Hamnet, a film directed by Academy Award–winning Chloé Zhao. This screen adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel focuses on the playwright’s wife, Agnes, and the death of their son, shedding new light on the emotional background behind the creation of one of the most important bodies of work in human history.
So did Shakespeare really “invent” us? Perhaps that’s too bold a statement. But he certainly gave us a language – and the tools – to describe our most complicated emotions.
Sources:
- Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, New York, 1998
- Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence, New York, 1973
- Harold Bloom, The Western Canon, New York, 1994
- Wikipedia