Constructing Identity in the Poetry of Tony Harrison - Revised and Expanded Edition

When, in 1948, Tony Harrison entered Leeds Grammar School as a scholarship boy, he found himself, as Richard Hoggart saw, "at the friction point of two cultures". His schooling introduced him to the "classics"; but it also deprived him of a clear identification with the place where he grew up. His work reflects and explores this tension; and it may be seen, in some ways, as a form of "identity construction."
The book examines key texts such as v. and the School of Eloquence sequence, where this "construction" takes different forms-oscillating between identity as a state, or a process; as continuity, or change; or as the outcome of conformity, or revolt.
This second edition has been extensively revised and includes a new chapter on Harrison's Elegies.

List of contents

identity studies - Tony Harrison - British poetry, elegy, contemporary poetry - memory studies - nostalgia studies - working-class culture

About the author

Agata Handley works as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Lodz, Poland. Her main areas of academic interest are contemporary British poetry, with a special focus on the representation of memory; and on intermedial issues. Her current research looks at the use of ekphrasis in contemporary Anglophone literature.

Product details

• Authors: Agata Handley
• Assisted by: Marek Wilczynski (Editor)
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.2021
• EAN: 9783631837450
• ISBN: 978-3-631-83745-0
• No. of pages: 208
• Dimensions: 148 mm x 18 mm x 210 mm
• Weight: 387 g
• Series: Transatlantic Studies in British and North American Culture
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies