Kabbalah and Criticism

127 Pages·1999·1.609 MB·English

by  Harold Bloom

KABBALAH
AND CRITICISM

HAROLD BLOOM
KABBALAH
AND
CRITICISM
CONTINUUM • NEW YORK
1999
The Continuum Publishing Company
370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Copyright ® 1975 by Harold Bloom
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written
permission of The Continuum Publishing Company.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bloom, Harold.
Kabbalah and criticism.
Originally published: New York: Seabury Press, 1975.
1. Cabala—History. 2. Criticism. I. Title.
[BM526.B55 1982] 296.1'6 82-4674
ISBN 0-8264-0242-9
For Angus Fletcher

A song means filling a jug, and even more so breaking the
jug. Breaking it apart. In the language of the Kabbalah
we perhaps might call it: Broken Vessels.
H. LE I VICK

CONTENTS
PROLOGUE : II
That, too, I must have known
KABBALAH : 15
KABBALAH AND CRITICISM : 51
THE NECESSITY OF MISREADING : 95
EPILOGUE : I27
The Name Spoken Over the Water