Ruins and Fragments

Discussion of Tony Harrison’s translations and adaptations tends to focus on the texts; both Harrison’s and the classical texts with which he is engaging. This chapter, however, explores his engagement not with the literary remains of the ancient world, but rather its physical remains. The chapter examines the ways in which works such as The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, The Labourers of Herakles, The Kaisers of Carnuntum, and The Gaze of the Gorgon engage with the material remains of antiquity, arguing that the physical remnants increasingly exert an influence on a par with the literary texts and that, while Harrison’s works from Trackers on remain deeply engaged with ancient texts, their engagement with antiquity and its legacy are far broader than that of the earlier writing.