Tony Harrison Flashcards
What prize did he win in 2010?
European Prize for Literature
What prize did he win in 2015?
The David Cohen Prize for Literture
What are his major works?
Loinersm School of Eloquence, Continuous, V
Mention dramas translated/ adapted by him
The Oresteia, Misanthrope
What is his statement?
passion for language thatcommunicates directly and immediately, men speaking to men
Where was he born?
Leeds
What opposition characterize him?
son of a baker vs scholarship, the classics/ Oxbridge education, scholar, poeta doctus vs. reaching mass audiences, inherited non-standard language vs. RP
What is his aim?
to speak for those who can’t express themselves, giving VOICE to the underpriviliged
What are his topics?
Hiroshima, Alzheimer victims, Salman Rushdie’ fatwa, Irag war, Bosnian conflict
What is he against?
an English reluctance to marry politics and poetry
Mention three of his poems besied V
Heredity, Them & [uz], for Professors Richard Hoggart & Leon Cortez
When was V written?
during miners’ strike 1984-84
What is V’s context?
Thatcher and transnational corporations vs. miner/ trade unions, collapse of cities like Leeds
Where does the notion of enemy within come from?
Enoch Powell’s speech in 1970
What characterized the 1980s?
Thatcherite we vs. the culturally different who are dangerous to liberty
What does gioing against the grain mean?
trocchees instead of iambs, alliteration, colloquial speech
What is V?
a long poem, a drama
What is V about?
persona visting his parents’ grave, personal reflection from a VANTAGE POINT, dialouge between skin and poet, summary his own epitaph
What is V modelled on?
the mocking poetic tradition (T.S. Eliot)
What does V mock?
funeral/pastoral elegy
What does V evoke?
Thomas Grey’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
How is V different from the Grey poem?
contryside --> urban peacful -->vandalised cemetry monolouge --> dialouge? elegiac mood --> aggression losses, remembrance - passive --> active
What is the underlying of V?
Mocking poetic tradition & questioning the significance and role of a poet
What is language in V?
layers of society (cf. rhymes)
What is the question of V?
can you represent the ones you come from/ separated by education and language?
Themes and topics of V?
racism/ problem of multiculturalism/ PC or problem? today’s skin vs. poet’s father
What does UNITED stand for in V?
changing signification: football club/ metaphor, negative conclusion
What is the Epitaph about?
self-definition, self-articulation, memory
What does V stand for?
versus, verses, victory sign, ‘four letter sign’, red tick at school,
What characterizes V?
Heteroglossia, semantic ambivalence, personal memory, author/narrator/character (Fowles)
