Poetry in Ruins: Memory and History in the Work of Tony Harrison

Time and place and the relationship between the two have always been prominent themes in the work of British Poet Tony Harrison (b. 1937). This paper will explore the shift that occurs in his work, beginning with his poem ‘v.’ which represents a transitional moment in his career when a personal space and object (his family tomb in the Leeds’ Holbeck Cemetery) comes to serve as a site of meditation for the state of the nation. I will trace Harrison’s use of ruins from the 1980s onward in his creation of transhistorical narratives in which memory and history function on multiple levels, with a particular focus on the shift from the ruins of ancient Greece to those of post-industrial Europe.

Hallie Marshall is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC.