Przekleństwa na językach, czyli o dwóch wierszach Philipa Larkina i Tony’ego Harrisona

Wit Pietrzak

Published: 2018-09-291

No. 3 (2015)

Vulgarisms as voices of social allegiance. Philip Larkin’s “High Windows” and Tony Harrison’s v.

Wit Pietrzak

Abstract

In the present article I set out to investigate the role of vulgarisms in Philip Larkin’s “High Windows” and Tony Harrison’s long poem v. The key problem at issue here is the notion of social belonging, which both poems probe into. While Larkin uses the curse in order, as the poem unravels, to show the naivety and sterility of vulgar language, Harrison shows that that kind of language needs to be assimilated, for only in that case can poetry become a discourse accepting of otherness. Thus Larkin is revealed here as a critic of the rebellious generation that regards vulgar language as their principal means of expression, whereas Harrison positions himself as their advocate and, to some extent, leader of the “angry young men” of the 1980s in Britain.

Keywords:

Philip Larkin, Tony Harrison, vulgarisms, contemporary poetry

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Pietrzak, W. (2018). Vulgarisms as voices of social allegiance. Philip Larkin’s “High Windows” and Tony Harrison’s v. Prace Literaturoznawcze, (3). Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uwm.edu.pl/index.php/pl/article/view/1140

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