The Analysis of Tony Harrison's Poems Essay Example
Vol 4. No.4 December 2009
Journal of Cambridge Studies
103
The Conflicting Voices in Tony Harrison’s Poetry
Xiaodong LIANG ∗
Henan Normal University
Abstract: Tony Harrison is one of the representatives of the contemporary public poets whose poetry seems to be a language arena in which different narrative voices from different social milieus are imposed upon each other; whose different utterances ideologically orientated collide with each other at every nuance of the semantic level, and whose poetry features as double-voiced discourse. Due to this conspicuous feature, this thesis focuses its attention on the opposite voices in Harrison’s poetry, namely the voices of “Them” and “[uz]”, of the silent and the eloquent, and of his own forked tongue in order to work out the ideological meanings embedded in each discourse, to trace his split self in the conflicts between his education and his origin.
Key Words: Tony Harrison’s poetry, conflicting voices, dialogic discourses, split self
∗
Liang Xiaodong is Professor of English Language and Literature at Faculty of International Studies of Henan Normal University. She was a visiting scholar of English Faculty, Cambridge University in 2001. She is particularly interested in Contemporary British and American poetry and fiction and has published many articles on them. Recently, she is working on the Contemporary British poetry, and Tony Harrison Studies is one of the projects. Her email address is emmaliang1231@yahoo.com.cn
.
Journal of Cambridge Studies
104
Introduction In talking about the major concerns of the contemporary British poetry, Neil Roberts has noticed that “class has continued to be a ground of contention in contemporary English poetry, and the most significant protagonist has been Tony Harrison.1 Indeed, Harrison is one of the representatives of public poets and “a tough-minded class warrior”, 2 fighting against discourse hegemony and oppression through his verbal weapons. His
Journal of Cambridge Studies
103
The Conflicting Voices in Tony Harrison’s Poetry
Xiaodong LIANG ∗
Henan Normal University
Abstract: Tony Harrison is one of the representatives of the contemporary public poets whose poetry seems to be a language arena in which different narrative voices from different social milieus are imposed upon each other; whose different utterances ideologically orientated collide with each other at every nuance of the semantic level, and whose poetry features as double-voiced discourse. Due to this conspicuous feature, this thesis focuses its attention on the opposite voices in Harrison’s poetry, namely the voices of “Them” and “[uz]”, of the silent and the eloquent, and of his own forked tongue in order to work out the ideological meanings embedded in each discourse, to trace his split self in the conflicts between his education and his origin.
Key Words: Tony Harrison’s poetry, conflicting voices, dialogic discourses, split self
∗
Liang Xiaodong is Professor of English Language and Literature at Faculty of International Studies of Henan Normal University. She was a visiting scholar of English Faculty, Cambridge University in 2001. She is particularly interested in Contemporary British and American poetry and fiction and has published many articles on them. Recently, she is working on the Contemporary British poetry, and Tony Harrison Studies is one of the projects. Her email address is emmaliang1231@yahoo.com.cn
.
Journal of Cambridge Studies
104
Introduction In talking about the major concerns of the contemporary British poetry, Neil Roberts has noticed that “class has continued to be a ground of contention in contemporary English poetry, and the most significant protagonist has been Tony Harrison.1 Indeed, Harrison is one of the representatives of public poets and “a tough-minded class warrior”, 2 fighting against discourse hegemony and oppression through his verbal weapons. His