The Heir and the Gravedigger: Tony Harrison’s Dual Relationship with Keats

Abstract

The poetic relationship between Tony Harrison and John Keats is a double paradox of “successor” and “gravedigger”. Harrison’s violent subversion of Keats’ tradition stemmed from the “anxiety of influence” he experienced as his successor: the aesthetic tradition represented by Keats could not encompass his working-class experience, necessitating its transformation to serve as a vessel for his own voice. This paper uses “dual father” (his working-class father and Keats, his literary father) and Harold Bloom’s theory of “the anxiety of influence” as a framework for analyzing poetic dynamics and employs a new biographical theory to explore the psychological driving force of Harrison’s class origin. Textual analysis reveals that Harrison employs “creative misreading” as a core strategy. Building on his inheritance of Keats’ sensuality, classical framework, and formal discipline, Harrison deviates from, opposes, and subverts Keats’ poetic legacy, transforming it into a sharp tool with which to express class demands and ultimately achieve creative transcendence of tradition.