Past Present Future28 Joulu 2023

History of Ideas 4: Virginia Woolf

Episode 4 in our series on the great essays is about Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece ‘A Room of One’s Own’ (1929). David discusses how an essay on the conditions for women writing fiction ends up being about so much else besides: anger, power, sex, modernity, independence and transcendence. And how, despite all that, it still manages to be as fresh and funny as anything written since. Read more on Virginia Woolf in the LRB: Jacqueline Rose on Woolf and madness ‘It is, one might say, a central paradox of modern family life that its members are required to mould themselves in each other’s image and yet to know, as separate individuals or egos, exactly who they are.’ Gillian Beer on Woolf and reality ‘The “real world” for Virginia Woolf was not solely the liberal humanist world of personal and social relationships: it was the hauntingly difficult world of Einsteinian physics and Wittgenstein’s private languages.’ Rosemary Hill on Woolf and domesticity ‘Woolf, who had once found it humiliating to do her own shopping, spent the last morning of her life dusting with Louie, before she put her duster down and went to drown herself.’ John Bayley on Woolf and writing ‘For Virginia Woolf wish-fulfilment was in words themselves, that protected her from herself and from society.’ Listen to David’s History of Ideas episode about Max Weber’s ‘The Profession and Vocation of Politics’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The History of Bad Ideas: Celebrity

David talks to historian and broadcaster Greg Jenner about the surprising history of the idea of celebrity, from Roman generals to 18th-century child stars to contemporary pop culture icons. How is ce...

19 Heinä 1h 8min

The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism

Today’s episode is about a bad idea with a very recent history: David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the dangers of deliverism. When did the view that delivering for the voters is ...

15 Heinä 56min

The History of Bad Ideas: Narrative History

Today’s bad idea is a way of doing history: David talks to historian Alec Ryrie about the seductions and pitfalls of narrative history. Why do we need more Herodotus and less Thucydides? What makes so...

12 Heinä 56min

The History of Bad Ideas: Hysteria

For the first in a new set of episodes about bad ideas with interesting histories David talks to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about hysteria, an ancient idea that became a very modern diagno...

8 Heinä 58min

Where Are We Going? The Future of the Future

In the second part of their conversation about what has happened to our ideas of the future David and Ivan Krastev explore where the future is going next. Why do our expectations of what comes after u...

5 Heinä 58min

Where Are We Going? The Idea of the Future

Today’s episode is the first of two with writer and political scientist Ivan Krastev exploring what has happened to our ideas of the future. When did thinking about the future become the way we define...

1 Heinä 1h 1min

Live Film Special: Never Let Me Go w/Adam Rutherford

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about Mark Romanek’s 2010 film of Kazuo...

28 Kesä 56min

Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The Brexit Referendum 10 Years On

Today’s episode in our occasional series looking at significant political anniversaries explores the causes and consequences of the Brexit Referendum, which took place 10 years ago this week. David ta...

24 Kesä 1h 3min