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.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(304)

Shakespeare's Margaret, with Charles O'Malley and Scott W. Stern

Shakespeare's Margaret, with Charles O'Malley and Scott W. Stern

It’s been more than 400 years since she first appeared on stage, and she’s still controversial. Margaret of Anjou appears in not one, not two, but four of Shakespeare’s plays—Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and ...

14 Jul 35min

Scholars in Shakespeare, with Sean Keilen

Scholars in Shakespeare, with Sean Keilen

Shakespeare famously never attended university. But not only has his work inspired generations of scholarship, his plays, too, are filled with scholarly characters. Shakespeare, it seems, took an inte...

30 Jun 35min

The Six Loves of James I, with Gareth Russell

The Six Loves of James I, with Gareth Russell

“Elizabeth was king, now James is queen.” So went the joke circulating around London in the 17th century. While Elizabeth I became an icon for transgressing traditional gender roles, her successor is ...

16 Jun 40min

Shakespeare and the Red Scare, with Marjorie Garber

Shakespeare and the Red Scare, with Marjorie Garber

“Is he a Communist?” During a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing in 1938, Congressman Joe Starnes probed into the politics of a writer produced by the Federal Theatre Project. The playwrig...

2 Jun 32min

Jacob Ming-Trent on How Shakespeare Saved My Life

Jacob Ming-Trent on How Shakespeare Saved My Life

One small step into the wrong classroom becomes a giant leap into a new life as a Shakespearean actor. That’s how Jacob Ming-Trent tells it in his remarkable one-man tour-de-force, How Shakespeare Sav...

19 Mai 31min

The Shakespeare Ladies Club

The Shakespeare Ladies Club

A century after Shakespeare’s death, his words were in danger of being forgotten. While plays like King Lear and Othello still played to packed houses across England, audiences saw only the bowdlerize...

5 Mai 27min

The Translator's Art and Shakespeare, with Daniel Hahn

The Translator's Art and Shakespeare, with Daniel Hahn

Is Shakespeare still Shakespeare even if every word is changed? While Shakespeare’s work is often hailed for its universality, its meter, metaphor, and wordplay pose special challenges for translators...

21 Apr 33min

The Improvised Shakespeare Company

The Improvised Shakespeare Company

What is it like to create a Shakespeare play that’s never been written—and will never be performed again? The Improvised Shakespeare Company is a long-running ensemble that performs entirely unscripte...

7 Apr 39min

Populært innen Premium

papaya
giver-og-gjengen-vg
storefri-med-mikkel-og-herman
harm-og-hegseth
big-5-med-nils-og-harald-2
krimpodden-vg
konspirasjonspodden
tusvik-tnne
topp-3-med-wold-og-fladseth
aftenpodden
avhort
jeg-skulle-onske-jeg-visste
fastlegen
aftenpodden-usa
ida-med-hjertet-i-handen
fotballpodden-2
podme-krim
hovla
alt-fortalt
aftenposten-dokumentar