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)

Shakespeare in Translation

Shakespeare in Translation

"Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated!" (A Midsummer Night's Dream, 3.1.120-121) What happens when Shakespeare’s work is translated into foreign languages? Is it still Shakespeare? Or ...

20 Maalis 201524min

Punk Rock Shakespeare

Punk Rock Shakespeare

"Here will we sit and let the sounds of music / Creep in our ears" (The Merchant of Venice, 5.1.63-64) How can young people connect with Shakespeare? It's a question that confronts each generation. ...

20 Maalis 201514min

Shakespeare Outdoors

Shakespeare Outdoors

"Under the greenwood tree / Who loves to lie with me / And turn his merry note / Unto the sweet bird’s throat, / Come hither, come hither, come hither. / Here shall he see / No enemy / But winter and ...

20 Maalis 201531min

In Search of the Real Richard III

In Search of the Real Richard III

"I, that am rudely stamped..." (Richard III, 1.1.16) Shakespeare not only talked about his own times; he also wrote history plays that showed us the past—though it was a past filtered through the pol...

20 Maalis 201529min

Actresses on Shakespeare

Actresses on Shakespeare

"All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players." (As You Like It, 2.7.146-147) In Shakespeare's time, only men appeared on stage, with teenage boys playing the women's parts. Tod...

20 Maalis 201520min

The Robben Island Shakespeare

The Robben Island Shakespeare

While Nelson Mandela was incarcerated on South Africa's Robben Island, one of the other political prisoners managed to retain a copy of Shakespeare's complete works, which was secretly circulated thro...

20 Maalis 201518min

Designing Shakespeare

Designing Shakespeare

“And I hope here is a play fitted.” —A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1.2.63) There's an old Broadway saying (sometimes attributed to Richard Rodgers) that "No one ever walked out of a theater humming the ...

25 Helmi 201518min

African Americans and Shakespeare

African Americans and Shakespeare

"Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom, high-day, freedom!" —THE TEMPEST(2.2.192-193) In this second of two podcasts on Shakespeare and the African American experience, "Freedom, Hey-Day! He...

25 Helmi 201532min

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