Ramsay - Campion Great Books Podcast

Welcome to the 2023 Ramsay – Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

“If Music be the food of love, play on…” We turn finally to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (or What You Will), a romantic comedy with tragic undertones, about the glories and vagaries of love, mistaken identity, fulfillment and loss.

In this podcast Dr Stephen McInerney, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College is joined by Dr Colin Dray, Lecturer in Literature at Campion College, together with Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at Australian Catholic University.

In this last episode of the series we look closely at the first interaction between Olivia and Viola, in Act 1 Scene 5 and go on to explore a series of questions, including: How do our disguises (such as Viola’s in pretending to be a young man) sometimes reveal more of our true desires than our ‘everyday’ selves, and allow the inner self to come forth? And what are the comic and possibly tragic results of the disguises we adopt, for ourselves and others?

Welcome to the 2023 Ramsay – Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

“If Music be the food of love, play on…” We turn now to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (or What You Will), a romantic comedy with tragic undertones, about the glories and vagaries of love, mistaken identity, fulfillment and loss.

In this podcast Dr Stephen McInerney, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College is joined by Dr Colin Dray, Lecturer in Literature at Campion College, together with Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at Australian Catholic University.

In this episode we consider a range of topics, including narcissistic love, the blurred and porous boundaries between the self and the other, and whether desire is something we ‘hunt’ or by which we are hunted. What are the comic and possibly tragic results of the disguises we adopt, for ourselves and others? And what are the consequence for someone who desires but is not desired in turn.

Welcome to the 2023 Ramsay – Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

We continue our discussion on Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Julius Caesar, the story of Julius Caesar’s downfall, the demise of his assassins and the rise of Mark Antony.

In this podcast Dr Stephen McInerney, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College is joined by Dr Colin Dray, Lecturer in Literature at Campion College, together with Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at Australian Catholic University.

We begin this episode with a discussion of the two contrasting speeches made to the crowd by Brutus and Mark Antony in the immediate aftermath of Caesar’s assassination. Why do subtle nuances and differences of language, and a speaker’s sense of occasion, have such a dramatic influence over the crowd? How does Mark Antony create a shared space with the crowd, and how does he say what he is not supposed to say while maintaining plausible deniability? Why is Mark Antony’s poetic utterance more effective in persuading the crowd than Brutus’ prose speech?

Welcome to the 2023 Ramsay – Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

We turn now to Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Julius Caesar, the story of Julius Caesar’s downfall, the demise of his assassins and the rise of Mark Antony.

In this podcast Dr Stephen McInerney, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College is joined by Dr Colin Dray, Lecturer in Literature at Campion College, together with Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at Australian Catholic University.

In this episode we ask: What motivates the conspirators and how are our sympathies towards different characters determined simultaneously by Shakespeare’s language and by the assumptions we bring to the play? Should we side with the conspirators or Caeasar, and why? And how do we manipulate language not only to convince others of the justness of our actions but to convince ourselves? We consider all of these other questions in light of the framing question: Is this really Caesar’s tragedy or Brutus’s?

Welcome to the 2023 Ramsay – Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

The series continues with the second of two conversations on Shakespeare’s Othello – the story of a general who kills his wife, having become convinced of her infidelity, only to realise he’s made a terrible mistake.

In this podcast Dr Stephen McInerney, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College is joined by Dr Colin Dray, Lecturer in Literature at Campion College, together with Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at Australian Catholic University.

In this conversation, the presenters consider the role of women in the play, and in particular Desdemona’s position as one of the most challenging female characters in Shakespeare’s entire body of work. We then explore how the action of the play collapses inward, from the broad field and high seas of war to a particular home, a particular chamber, and a particular bed, the scene of murder. We conclude with a consideration of Iago and the enigma of evil.

Welcome to the 2023 Ramsay – Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

The series continues with the first of two conversations on Shakespeare’s Othello, the story of a general who, under the influence of the villain Iago, becomes convinced that his wife has been unfaithful to him and so murders her, only to realise he’s made a terrible mistake.

In this podcast Dr Stephen McInerney, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College is joined by Dr Colin Dray, Lecturer in Literature at Campion College together with Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at Australian Catholic University.

In this conversation, the presenters focus on the difference between tragedies of fate and tragedies of character, why it is that Othello listens to Iago, and the problem of trying to ascertain a character’s true motivation.

Welcome to the 2023 Ramsay – Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

The series continues with the second of two conversations on Shakespeare’s King Lear — the story of a King who divides his kingdom between two sinister daughters while disinheriting and disavowing the daughter who is most devoted to him.

In this podcast Dr Stephen McInerney, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College is joined by Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at ACU, together with Professor Renée Köhler-Ryan, National Head of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia.

This conversation opens on the cliff’s edge, with Edgar (‘Poor Tom’) and his father, Gloucester. It explores what it means for a child to realise his parent is no longer an authority figure, that the parent has in fact become like the child, and the child like the parent. In addition, we explore the often conflicting meanings of the concept of Nature in the play, why mothers are absent from the play, and why Lear goes mad.

Welcome to the 2023 Ramsay – Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

 The series commences with the first of two conversations on Shakespeare’s King Lear – the story of a King who abdicates his throne and divides his kingdom between his two oldest daughters while disavowing his most devoted daughter, Cordelia.

In this podcast Dr Stephen McInerney, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition at Campion College is joined by Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at ACU, together with Professor Renée Köhler-Ryan, National Head of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia.

In this conversation, we explore the meaning of “nothing”, the meaning of tragedy and what it means to be brought to tears and speechlessness by a work of art. The conversation ends with a cliff-hanger…

Welcome to the 2022 Ramsay-Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

Our series on the Greeks concludes as we move from History to Philosophy in the form of one of Plato’s best known dialogues, Symposium, a remarkable exploration on a perennially important topic in the Western tradition – Love: its nature, meaning, purpose, and often confusing complexities. 

In this sixth podcast Dr Stephen McInerney is joined by Professor Renee Kohler-Ryan, National Head of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and Dr Kishore Saval, Senior Lecturer in the Western Civilisation Program at Australian Catholic University. 

Dr Stephen McInerney, Professor Renee Kohler-Ryan, Dr Kishore Saval

Welcome to the 2022 Ramsay-Campion Great Books Podcast Series.

The series on the Greeks continues as we turn from Homeric epic and Sophoclean tragedy to Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, a work that not only helps establish the contours of a new literary genre, the History, but in doing so becomes one of the most influential works of political theory in the Western canon. 

In this fifth podcast Dr Stephen McInerney is joined by Professor Simon Haines, CEO of the Ramsay Centre and Dr Jeremy Bell, Lecturer in History and Philosophy at Campion College, Sydney.

Dr Stephen McInerney, Professor Simon Haines, Dr Jeremy Bell