YEAR 13 Mon 24th April 17

Today's session explored the issues within TONY HARRISON'S..

• DIVISIONS
• WORKING
• MARKED WITH D

Class discussion considered the nature of the crude male working-class stereotype being offered to the reader in Divisions and WHY Working is such an important poem. Below are two versions of the famous folk song that represents the experience of PATIENCE KERSHAW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRqLwtZ20Q

This is a resource that offers a link to the testimony of PK:

http://www.nourishingobscurity.com/2010/11/the-testimony-of-patience-kershaw/

WORKING is such an important poem because it includes evidence of Harrison's doubt when considering the value of his poetry and concludes with a couplet that illustrates WHY he bothers to construct his work: 'the job's breaking the silence of the worked-out-gob.' This links to the belief that 'the tongueless man gets his land took' and illustrates the idea that Harrison is creating poetry that reflects working-class experience. He is presenting his culture to an audience that may not be familiar with the working-class experience. He is capturing the history, language, dignity, and struggle of working-class culture. He is providing a poetic voice for people denied a poetic or literary representation; very similar to Wordsworth in The Lyrical Ballads. This is the idea being expressed in the epitaph in V. He is providing a poetic voice for the voiceless.

This lesson also considered MARKED WITH D and the influence and inspiration that Harrison finds in the memory of his Father and the fact that he wishes to give a voice to 'the tongue that weighed like lead'. The idea of providing a poetic voice for a culture often denied a presence within literature is an idea that is central to Harrison's work. His work challenges the view of the teacher in THEM and [uz] when the teacher suggests that there is a cultural hierarchy and Harrison's cultural origins are inferior when compared with 'the Receivers'.

HOMEWORK: Some students need to send me an essay ASAP. READ Harrison's poetry and consider content within the context of the question that I gave you at the end of the session. This essay title will be our next written task. Thanks to Patrick and Harry who were superb in our session at the end of the school day. Great work. Keep it up.
I expect ALL students to be reading HARD TIMES and HARRISON in order to develop an informed and coherent understanding of content that will allow us to compare and contrast the ideas of Dickens and Harrison in the coming weeks. WHAT IS THE MOTIVATION OF EACH AUTHOR? WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THEIR PROTEST? WHAT IS THEIR AIM? WHO IS THEIR AUDIENCE?