Thinking Through Shakespeare, with David Womersley

Thinking Through Shakespeare, with David Womersley

Many readers turn to Shakespeare for the beauty of his language or the power of his stories. But in Thinking Through Shakespeare, Oxford scholar David Womersley suggests that the plays offer something else as well: a way of exploring some of the deepest questions about human life. Womersley looks at tragedies like Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear to show how Shakespeare places audiences inside difficult moral and philosophical problems. The plays raise questions about identity, power, and the tension between doing what is right and doing what is personally advantageous. Rather than presenting clear answers, Shakespeare lets these ideas collide on stage. In this episode, Womersley explains how Shakespeare’s plays become what he calls “crucibles” for thinking. As characters struggle with competing values and impossible choices, audiences go on that journey with them—testing ideas, reconsidering assumptions, and confronting the same enduring dilemmas that have shaped human thought for centuries.

Jaksot(296)

Elizabethan Street Fighting

Elizabethan Street Fighting

"Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden time, Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear." —MACBETH(3.4.91–94) From the due...

5 Touko 201530min

Myths About Shakespeare

Myths About Shakespeare

"It is not so. Thou hast misspoke, misheard. Be well advised; tell o'er thy tale again. It cannot be; thou dost but say 'tis so." —KING JOHN (3.1.5–7) Even if you’re not a Shakespeare scholar, there ...

22 Huhti 201525min

Recounting Shakespeare's Life

Recounting Shakespeare's Life

Her father loved me, oft invited me, Still questioned me the story of my life From year to year—the battles, sieges, fortunes That I have passed. —Othello (1.3.149–152) What do we know about Shake...

8 Huhti 201528min

Shakespeare in Black and White

Shakespeare in Black and White

"Our own voices with our own tongues" —CORIOLANUS (2.3.47) In one of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Our Own Voices with Our Own Tongues" revisits the era when Jim C...

20 Maalis 201530min

The Rarely Performed Shakespeare Plays

The Rarely Performed Shakespeare Plays

"As jewels lose their glory if neglected, So princes their renowns if not respected." —PERICLES (2:2:12–13) Every year, theaters across the United States and the world treat us to Shakespeare—which u...

20 Maalis 201528min

A New First Folio Discovery

A New First Folio Discovery

"As truth's authentic author to be cited, 'As true as Troilus' shall crown up the verse" —TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (3.2.182–183) Not long ago, the world learned of a remarkable discovery: An old book in...

20 Maalis 201520min

Pronouncing English as Shakespeare Did

Pronouncing English as Shakespeare Did

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue." —HAMLET (3:2:1–2) When Shakespeare wrote his lines, and actors first spoke them, how did they say the words—and wh...

20 Maalis 201528min

Brave New Worlds: The Shakespearean Moons of Uranus

Brave New Worlds: The Shakespearean Moons of Uranus

Sometimes it seems you can hear or see traces of Shakespeare just about anywhere on Earth. But how about around the planet Uranus, which had not even been discovered in Shakespeare's time? In this ce...

20 Maalis 201540min

Suosittua kategoriassa Premium

nikotellen
anni-jaajo
jaljilla
tuplakaak
olipa-kerran-otsikko
antin-matka
grekovit
hei-baby-3
maanantaimysteeri
i-dont-like-mondays
sita
terveisia-perheesta
palmujen-varjoissa
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
kaksi-aitia
murhan-anatomia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
the-harlin-show
backmanholmavuo
ihan-oikeesti