In Our Time: Culture

By BBC Radio 4History

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In Our Time: Culture episodes

September 13, 2018 The Iliad
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great epic poem attributed to Homer, telling the story of an intense episode in the Trojan War. It is framed by the wrath of the Greek hero Achilles, insulted by his leader Agamemnon and withdrawing from the battle that continued to rage, only returning when his close friend Patroclus is killed by the Trojan hero Hector. Achilles turns his anger from Agamemnon to Hector and the fated destruction of Troy comes ever closer.
With
Edith Hall
Professor of Classics at King's College London
Barbara Graziosi
Professor of Classics at Princeton University
And
Paul Cartledge
A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture at Clare College, Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
49 min
July 05, 2018 William Morris
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of William Morris, known in his lifetime for his poetry and then his contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement, and increasingly for his political activism. He felt the world had given in to drudgery and ugliness and he found inspiration in the time before industrialisation, in the medieval life which was about fellowship and association and ways of working which resisted the division of labour and allowed the worker to exercise his or her imagination. Seeing a disconnection between art and society, his solution was revolution which in his view was the only way to reset their relationship.
The image above is from the Strawberry Thief wallpaper design by William Morris.
With
Ingrid Hanson
Lecturer in 18th and 19th Century Literature at the University of Manchester
Marcus Waithe
University Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Magdalene College
And
Jane Thomas
Professor of Victorian and Early 20th Century Literature at the University of Hull
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
54 min
May 31, 2018 Henrik Ibsen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Norwegian playwright and poet, best known for his middle class tragedies such as The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, A Doll's House and An Enemy of the People. These are set in a world where the middle class is dominant and explore the qualities of that life, its weaknesses and boundaries and the ways in which it takes away freedoms. It is the women who fare the worst in this society, something Ibsen explored in A Doll's House among others, a play that created a sensation with audiences shocked to watch a woman break free of her bourgeois family life to find her destiny. He explored dark secrets such as incest and, in Ghosts, hereditary syphilis, which attracted the censors. He gave actresses parts they had rarely had before, and audiences plays that, after Shakespeare, became the most performed in the world.
With
Tore Rem
Professor of English Literature at the University of Oslo
Kirsten Shepherd-Barr
Professor of English and Theatre Studies and Tutorial Fellow, St Catherine's College at the University of Oxford
And
Dinah Birch
Professor of English Literature and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Cultural Engagement at the University of Liverpool
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
50 min
May 10, 2018 The Mabinogion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the eleven stories of Celtic mythology and Arthurian romance known as The Mabinogion, most of which were told and retold for generations before being written down in C14th. Among them are stories of Pwyll and Rhiannon and their son Pryderi, of Culhwch and Olwen, of the dream of the Emperor Macsen, of Lludd and Llefelys, of magic and giants and imagined history. With common themes but no single author, they project an image of the Island of Britain before the Anglo-Saxons and Normans and before Edward I's conquest of Wales. They came to new prominence, worldwide, from C19th with the translation into English by Lady Charlotte Guest aided by William Owen Pughe.
The image above is of Cynon ap Clydno approaching the Castle of Maidens from the tale of Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain
With
Sioned Davies
Professor in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University
Helen Fulton
Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bristol
And
Juliette Wood
Associate Lecturer in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
49 min
April 19, 2018 Middlemarch
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what Virginia Woolf called 'one of the few English novels written for grown-up people'. It was written by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans (1819-80), published in 8 parts in 1871-72, and was originally two separate stories which became woven together. One, 'Middlemarch', focused on a doctor, Tertius Lydgate and the other, 'Miss Brooke', on Dorothea Brooke who became the central figure in the finished work. The events are set in a small town in the Midlands, surrounded by farmland, leading up to the Reform Act 1832, and the novel explores the potential to change in matters of religion, social status, marriage and politics, and is particularly concerned with the opportunities available to women to lead fulfilling lives.
The image above shows Rufus Sewell and Juliet Aubrey in the BBC adaptation, from 1994
With
Rosemary Ashton
Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London
Kathryn Hughes
Professor of Life Writing at the University of East Anglia
And
John Bowen
Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of York
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
52 min
January 18, 2018 Anna Akhmatova
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work, ideas and life of the Russian poet whose work was celebrated in C20th both for its quality and for what it represented, written under censorship in the Stalin years. Her best known poem, Requiem, was written after her son was imprisoned partly as a threat to her and, to avoid punishment for creating it, she passed it on to her supporters to be memorised, line by line, rather than written down. She was a problem for the authorities and became significant internationally, as her work came to symbolise resistance to political tyranny and the preservation of pre-Revolutionary liberal values in the Soviet era.
The image above is based on 'Portrait of Anna Akhmatova' by N.I. Altman, 1914, Moscow
With
Katharine Hodgson
Professor in Russian at the University of Exeter
Alexandra Harrington
Reader in Russian Studies at Durham University
And
Michael Basker
Professor of Russian Literature and Dean of Arts at the University of Bristol
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
49 min
December 28, 2017 Hamlet
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's best known, most quoted and longest play, written c1599 - 1602 and rewritten throughout his lifetime. It is the story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, encouraged by his father's ghost to take revenge on his uncle who murdered him, and is set at the court of Elsinore. In soliloquies, the Prince reveals his inner self to the audience while concealing his thoughts from all at the Danish court, who presume him insane. Shakespeare gives him lines such as 'to be or not to be,' 'alas, poor Yorick,' and 'frailty thy name is woman', which are known even to those who have never seen or read the play. And Hamlet has become the defining role for actors, men and women, who want to show their mastery of Shakespeare's work.
The image above is from the 1964 film adaptation, directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with Innokenty Smoktunovsky as Hamlet.
With
Sir Jonathan Bate
Provost of Worcester College, University of Oxford
Carol Rutter
Professor of Shakespeare and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick
And
Sonia Massai
Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King's College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
53 min
December 21, 2017 Beethoven
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great composers, who was born into a family of musicians in Bonn. His grandfather was an eminent musician and also called Ludwig van Beethoven. His father, who was not as talented as Beethoven's grandfather, drank heavily and died when Beethoven was still young. It was his move to Vienna that allowed him to flourish, with the support at first of aristocratic patrons, when that city was the hub of European music. He is credited with developing the symphony further than any who preceded him, with elevating instrumental above choral music and with transforming music to the highest form of art. He composed his celebrated works while, from his late twenties onwards, becoming increasingly deaf.
(Before the live broadcast, BBC Radio 3's Breakfast programme played selections from Beethoven, with Essential Classics playing more, immediately after, on the same network.)
With
Laura Tunbridge
Professor of Music and Henfrey Fellow, St Catherine's College, University of Oxford
John Deathridge
Emeritus King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London
And
Erica Buurman
Senior Lecturer in Music, Canterbury Christchurch University
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
51 min
December 07, 2017 Moby Dick
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Herman Melville's (1819-1891) epic novel, published in London in 1851, the story of Captain Ahab's pursuit of a great white sperm whale that had bitten off his leg. He risks his own life and that of his crew on the Pequod, single-mindedly seeking his revenge, his story narrated by Ishmael who was taking part in a whaling expedition for the first time. This is one of the c1000 ideas which listeners sent in this autumn for our fourth Listener Week, following Kafka's The Trial in 2014, Captain Cook in 2015 and Garibaldi and the Risorgimento in 2016.
With
Bridget Bennett
Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Leeds
Katie McGettigan
Lecturer in American Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
And
Graham Thompson
Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Nottingham
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
51 min
November 16, 2017 Germaine de Stael
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and impact of Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) who Byron praised as Europe's greatest living writer, and was at the heart of intellectual and literary life in the France of revolution and of Napoleon. As well as attracting and inspiring others in her salon, she wrote novels, plays. literary criticism, political essays, and poems and developed the ideas behind Romanticism. She achieved this while regularly exiled from the Paris in which she was born, having fallen out with Napoleon who she opposed, becoming a towering figure in the history of European ideas.
With
Catriona Seth, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford
Alison Finch, Professor Emerita of French Literature at the University of Cambridge
and
Katherine Astbury, Associate Professor and Reader in French Studies at the University of Warwick.
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
50 min