Deborah Harkness: A Discovery of Witches

Deborah Harkness: A Discovery of Witches

In 1994, Deborah Harkness was doing research at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library when she stumbled across the Book of Soyga, a long-lost manuscript treatise on magic that once belonged to Elizabethan scientist and occult philosopher John Dee. About fourteen years later, she had an idea for a story: a historian—who turns out to be a witch—discovers a lost and much-coveted manuscript that thrusts her into a world of vampires, demons, and magic. Harkness’s idea became A Discovery of Witches, the first book of her All Souls Trilogy. The novel is now a television series starring Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode. The show comes to AMC and BBC America on April 7. We asked Harkness to join us on Shakespeare Unlimited to talk about how her research influenced her fiction writing and to tell us about how witches, demons, and the supernatural were perceived in Shakespeare’s England. Dr. Deborah Harkness is a teaching professor of history at the University of Southern California. She is the author of John Dee’s Conversations with Angels and The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution, as well as the All Souls Trilogy, originally published by Viking Press for Penguin Books. Harkness is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published March 19, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “Excellent Witchcraft” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Shawn Corey Campbell and Bianca Ramirez at KPCC Public Radio in Pasadena, California.

Jaksot(296)

The Year of Lear

The Year of Lear

1606 was a critical year for Shakespeare’s creative career. It was the year in which he wrote KING LEAR, MACBETH, and ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. It was also a time in which the king of England, James I, fa...

23 Syys 201529min

Editing Shakespeare

Editing Shakespeare

Just what exactly does it mean to edit the works of Shakespeare, particularly since we have no surviving manuscript copies? Why is it that new editions of the plays continue to be published? In this ...

9 Syys 201531min

Shakespeare Not Stirred

Shakespeare Not Stirred

"Shakespeare Not Stirred" is the creation of two English professors who combined their love of the cocktail hour and their love of Shakespeare to write a collection of Bard-inspired cocktail and hors ...

26 Elo 201525min

Great Shakespeareans

Great Shakespeareans

If you were to make a list of the people who have left an enduring imprint on how the world interprets, understands, and receives Shakespeare, who would you choose? About a decade ago, Peter Holland,...

29 Heinä 201521min

Shakespeare and The Tabard Inn

Shakespeare and The Tabard Inn

What if Shakespeare and his friends had gotten together and carved their names on the wall of an inn made famous by Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales? The intriguing possibility of such a link between these ...

15 Heinä 201519min

Shakespeare in Hong Kong

Shakespeare in Hong Kong

"Last thing he did, dear queen, He kissed—the last of many doubled kisses— This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart." ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1.5.45-48) Hong Kong, a former British colony, ha...

1 Heinä 201524min

Shakespeare on Film

Shakespeare on Film

For most of us, “seeing Shakespeare” means experiencing live actors in a theater. But for more than 100 years, Shakespeare’s words, plots, settings and characters have also been brought to life on fil...

17 Kesä 201523min

Shakespeare's France and Italy

Shakespeare's France and Italy

"Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth, . . . Have stooped my neck under your injuries And sighed my English breath in foreign clouds" —RICHARD II (3.1.16, 19–20) Shakespeare's plays are well stock...

20 Touko 201522min

Suosittua kategoriassa Premium

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