Allan Bloom's Message to the State Universities

Abstract

There is a tradition of theory—virtually as old as written literature itself—that views the artist as a maker of new worlds.¹ Reacting against philosophers like Plato, who sees literature as merely the imitation of an imitation, many theorists have ascribed to writers a dynamic and creative power to bring into being that which did not exist before. This article examines two such would-be creators: Friedrich Nietzsche and Chinua Achebe.