Close Readings

Close Readings
LRB CLOSE READINGS

Full access to all our Close Readings series

5,99 US$/mo or 59,99 US$/yr after trial

Close Readings is a new multi-series podcast subscription from the London Review of Books. Two contributors explore areas of literature through a selection of key works, providing an introductory grounding like no other. Listen to some episodes for free here, and extracts from our ongoing subscriber-only series. How To Subscribe In Apple Podcasts, click 'subscribe' at the top of this podcast feed to unlock the full episodes. Or for other podcast apps, sign up here: https://lrb.me/closereadings Running in 2024: On Satire with Clare Bucknell and Colin Burrow Human Conditions with Adam Shatz, Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards Among the Ancients II with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones Political Poems with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford Medieval LOLs with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley Four new series starting in January 2025: CONVERSATIONS IN PHILOSOPHY with Jonathan Rée and James Wood FICTION AND THE FANTASTIC with Marina Warner, Anna Della Subin and other guests LOVE AND DEATH with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford NOVEL APPROACHES with Clare Bucknell, Thomas Jones and other guests Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 10 NOV

    Human Conditions: ‘Black Music’ by Amiri Baraka

    In 'Black Music', a collection of essays, liner notes and interviews from 1959 to 1967, Amiri Baraka captures the ferment, energy and excitement of the avant-garde jazz scene. Published while he still went by LeRoi Jones, it provides a composite picture of Baraka’s evolving thought, aesthetic values and literary experimentation. In this episode, Brent and Adam discuss the ways in which Baraka tackled the challenge of writing about music and his intimate connections to the major players in jazz. Whether you’re familiar with the music or totally new to the New Thing, 'Black Music' is an essential guide to a period of political and artistic upheaval. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: Subscribe to Close Readings: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Brent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University. Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Further reading in the LRB: Adam Shatz: The Freedom Principle https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2014/may/the-freedom-principle Adam Shatz: On Ornette Coleman https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n14/adam-shatz/diary Philip Clark: On Cecil Taylor https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2018/april/cecil-taylor-1929-2018 Ian Penman: Birditis https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n02/ian-penman/birditis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    17 min
  2. 28 OCT

    Political Poems: 'The Prelude' (books 9 and 10) by William Wordsworth

    Wordsworth was not unusual among Romantic poets for his enthusiastic support of the French Revolution, but he stands apart from his contemporaries for actually being there to see it for himself (‘Thou wert there,’ Coleridge wrote). This episode looks at Wordsworth’s retrospective account of his 1791 visit to France, described in books 9 and 10 of The Prelude, and the ways in which it reveals a passionate commitment to republicanism while recoiling from political extremism. Mark and Seamus discuss why, despite Wordsworth’s claim of being innately republican, discussion of the intellectual underpinnings of the revolution is strangely absent from the poem, which is more often preoccupied with romance and the imagination, particularly in their power to soften zealotry. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4dbjbjG In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Further reading in the LRB: Seamus Perry: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v30/n24/seamus-perry/regrets-vexations-lassitudes E.P. Thompson https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v10/n22/e.p.-thompson/wordsworth-s-crisis Colin Burrow: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n13/colin-burrow/a-solemn-and-unsexual-man Marilyn Butler https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v05/n12/marilyn-butler/three-feet-on-the-ground Thomas Keymer https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n12/thomas-keymer/after-meditation Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    12 min
  3. 4 OCT

    On Satire: 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde

    By the end of 1895 Oscar Wilde’s life was in ruins as he sat in Reading Gaol facing public disgrace, bankruptcy and, two years later, exile. Just ten months earlier the premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest at St James’s Theatre in London had been greeted rapturously by both the audience and critics. In this episode Colin and Clare consider what Wilde was trying do with his comedy, written on the cusp of this dark future. The ‘strange mixture of romance and finance’ Wilde observed in the letters of his lover, Alfred Douglas, could equally be applied to Earnest, and the satire of Jane Austen before it, but is it right to think of Wilde’s play as satirical? His characters are presented in an ethical vacuum, stripped of any good or bad qualities, but ultimately seem to demonstrate the impossibility of living a purely aesthetic life free from conventional morality. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4dbjbjG In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Read more in the LRB: Colm Tóibín on Wilde's letters: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n08/colm-toibin/love-in-a-dark-time Colm Tóibín the Wilde family: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n23/colm-toibin/the-road-to-reading-gaol Frank Kermode: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v09/n19/frank-kermode/a-little-of-this-honey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    15 min

Shows with Subscription Benefits

  • Clare Bucknell and Colin Burrow attempt, over twelve episodes, to chart a stable course through some of the most unruly, vulgar, incoherent, savage and outright hilarious works in all of English literature. What is satire, what is it for, and why do we seem to like it so much? Clare Bucknell and Colin Burrow are both fellows of All Souls College, Oxford. Episodes will appear once a month throughout 2024, on the 4th of each month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Emily Wilson, celebrated classicist and translator of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, is back to take on another twelve vital works of Greek and Roman literature with the LRB’s Thomas Jones, loosely themed around truth and lies – from from Aesop’s Fables to Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. Episodes will appear once a month throughout 2024. Among the Ancients is part of the Close Readings podcasts collection from the London Review of Books. To listen to all the series in full, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts at the top of this podcast For Spotify and other podcast apps here: https://lrb.supportingcast.fm/close-readings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Were the Middle Ages funny? To answer that question, Mary Wellesley and Irina Dumitrescu hunt through some of the rudest, silliest and surprising works in English literature in search of the Medieval sense of humour. Mary Wellesley and Irina Dumitrescu are both writers and historians, and regular contributors to the London Review of Books. Sign up to listen to this series ad free and all our subscriber series in full, including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/medlolapplesignup In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/medlolscsignup Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • From dragons and one-eyed giants to divine visions and friendly otters, Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley roam the strange and wonderful literary landscape of the Middle Ages, from Beowulf to Sir John Mandeville, by way of Chaucer, Sir Gawain and plenty of far-fetched romance. Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley are both writers and historians, and regular contributors to the London Review of Books. Medieval Beginnings is part of the Close Readings podcasts collection from the London Review of Books. To unlock all the episodes in this series, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: In Apple Directly at the top of this podcast or here: https://apple.co/3XTS9H8 In Spotify and other apps Here: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Emily Wilson, Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and translator of both the 'Odyssey' and the 'Iliad', joins Thomas Jones, an editor at the London Review of Books, for a tour through some of the greatest works of Ancient Greek and Roman literature, from Homer to Horace.  Among the Ancients is part of the Close Readings podcasts collection from the London Review of Books. To listen to the full series, and all our other Close Readings series (including a second series of Among the Ancients), subsribe: Directly in Apple Podcast, at the top of this feed or here: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • In their first Close Readings series, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford considers the lives and works of Modernist and almost-Modernist poets, from A. E. Housman to Seamus Heaney. Modern-ish Poets is part of the Close Readings podcasts collection from the London Review of Books. Subscribe here or on the London Review of Books channel and access all our Close Readings series in full. Find our channel page here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/channel/london-review-of-books/id6450677311

LRB CLOSE READINGS

Full access to all our Close Readings series

5,99 US$/mo or 59,99 US$/yr after trial

About

Close Readings is a new multi-series podcast subscription from the London Review of Books. Two contributors explore areas of literature through a selection of key works, providing an introductory grounding like no other. Listen to some episodes for free here, and extracts from our ongoing subscriber-only series. How To Subscribe In Apple Podcasts, click 'subscribe' at the top of this podcast feed to unlock the full episodes. Or for other podcast apps, sign up here: https://lrb.me/closereadings Running in 2024: On Satire with Clare Bucknell and Colin Burrow Human Conditions with Adam Shatz, Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards Among the Ancients II with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones Political Poems with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford Medieval LOLs with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley Four new series starting in January 2025: CONVERSATIONS IN PHILOSOPHY with Jonathan Rée and James Wood FICTION AND THE FANTASTIC with Marina Warner, Anna Della Subin and other guests LOVE AND DEATH with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford NOVEL APPROACHES with Clare Bucknell, Thomas Jones and other guests Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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