Medieval LOLs

London Review of Books
  • 5,0 (1)
  • LIVROS
  • MENSAL
Medieval LOLs
LRB CLOSE READINGS

Full access to all our Close Readings series

$ 5.99/mês ou $ 59.99/ano após o período de teste

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.

Episódios

  1. 18 DE NOV.

    'Tales of Count Lucanor' by Juan Manuel

    If you’re looking for advice on sustaining a marriage, or robbing a grave, or performing liver surgery, then a series of self-help stories by a 14th-century Spanish prince is a good place to start. Tales of Count Lucanor, written between 1328 and 1335 by Prince Juan Manuel of Villena, is one of the earliest works of Castilian prose. The tales follow the familiar shape of many medieval stories, presented as a kind of medicine to improve the lives of its readers by example. Yet in his preface Manuel makes an unusual assertion about the individuality of all people, a philosophy that, as Mary and Irina discuss in this episode, leads to bizarre and opaque moral messages intended more to make the reader think for themselves than reach a universal conclusion. Find a translation of the Tales here: https://elfinspell.com/CountLucanor1.html Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: 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.

    14min

  2. 18 DE OUT.

    Boccaccio’s ‘Decameron’: Part Two

    Mary and Irina resume their discussion of Boccaccio’s Decameron, focusing on three stories of female agency, deception and desire. Alibech, an aspiring hermitess, is tricked into indulging her powerful sexual urges; Petronella combines business and pleasure at the expense of her husband and lover; while Lydia demonstrates her devotion by killing hawks and pulling teeth. As Mary and Irina discuss, these stories exemplify the ambiguous depiction of women in the Decameron, where the world is powered by rapacious female lusts, sex has no consequences and conventional morality is suspended. Read more on the Decameron in the LRB: https://lrb.me/decameronpod Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: 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.

    15min

  3. 18 DE SET.

    Boccaccio's 'Decameron': Part One

    In the preface to the Decameron Boccaccio describes Florentine society laid waste by bubonic plague in the mid-14th century. But before he gets to that he has a confession for the reader: he has been hurt by love, a love ‘more fervent than any other love’, and intends his work as a guide to life and love for young women in particular. In the first of two episodes on Boccaccio’s hundred novelle of sex, dishonesty and foolishness, Mary and Irina consider why both the preface and first story – about the disreputable merchant Cepparello – start with a confession, before looking at the later tale of the gardener Masetto and his noble efforts tending to the needs of every nun in a convent in Lamporecchio. Non-subscriber will only hear extracts from most of the episodes in this series. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: 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.

    46min

  4. 18 DE AGO.

    Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle

    The character of Gawain, one of King Arthur’s leading knights, recurs throughout medieval literature, but the way he’s presented underwent a curious development during the period, moving closer and closer to an impossible and perhaps comical ideal of chivalric perfection. In 'Sir Gawain and the Greene Knight', his most well-known incarnation, Gawain faces a series of peculiar tests and apparently fails them all. 'Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle', a later poem, takes many elements from 'The Greene Knight' and exaggerates them to the extreme: the cups the knights drink from are so large they’re impossible to drink from, and Gawain faces an even more peculiar sequence of tests, but meets them all perfectly. Irina and Mary discuss the degree to which this exaggeration can be taken as a satire on chivalric expectations, and whether by this point the character of Gawain should be considered more monastic than knightly. Read the text here: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/hahn-sir-gawain-sir-gawain-and-the-carle-of-carlisle Read some Arthurian background in the LRB here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n24/tom-shippey/so-much-smoke Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: 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.

    12min

  5. 18 DE JUL.

    Solomon and Marcolf

    The foul-mouthed, mean-spirited peasant Marcolf was one of the most well-known literary characters in late medieval Europe. He appears in many poetic works from the 9th century onwards, but it’s in this dialogue with Solomon, printed in Antwerp in 1492, that we find him at his irreverent and scatological best as they engage in a battle of proverbial wisdom. Mary and Irina consider some of the more startling and perplexing of the riddles and discuss how the development of Marcolf’s earthy rejoinders tells a story about justice and political power. Read the text here: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/bradbury-solomon-and-marcolf Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: 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.

    11min

  6. 18 DE JUN.

    The Second Shepherds' Pageant

    In their quest for the medieval sense of humour Mary and Irina come to The Second Shepherds’ Pageant, a 15th-century reimagining of the nativity as domestic comedy that’s less about the birth of Jesus and more about sheep rustling, taxes, the weather and the frustrations of daily life. The pageant was part of a mystery cycle, a collection of plays that revealed religious mysteries through performances of the Christian story and were a central part of community life. Mary and Irina discuss the porous relationship between player and audience in medieval theatre, and the expert stage management of this knockabout semi-biblical farce. Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: 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.

    11min

  7. 31 DE MAI.

    Dame Syrith

    As Mary and Irina discussed in the previous episode of Medieval LOLs, fabliaux had an enormous influence on Chaucer, but outside of his work, only one survives in Middle English. Dame Syrith, a story of lust, deception and a mustard-eating dog, is medieval humour at its silliest and most troubling. Mary and Irina explore the surprising representations of old women, magic and consent in fabliaux, the poem’s possible role as a pedagogical tool, and medieval audiences’ love for the procuress trope. Read Dame Syrith here: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/salisbury-trials-and-joys-dame-sirth Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/medlolapplesignup In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/medlolscsignup Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Further reading in the LRB: Irina Dumitrescu: Making My Moan https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n09/irina-dumitrescu/making-my-moan Tom Shippey: Women Beware Midwives https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v12/n09/tom-shippey/women-beware-midwives Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    12min

  8. 18 DE ABR.

    Fabliaux

    Fabliaux were short, witty tales originating in northern France between the 12th and 14th centuries, often featuring crafty characters in rustic settings and overwhelmingly concerned with money and sex. In this episode Irina and Mary look at two of these comic verses, both containing surprisingly explicit sexual language, and consider the ways in which they influenced Boccaccio, Chaucer and others. Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: 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.

    14min

  9. 18 DE MAR.

    Old English Riddles

    Riddles are an ancient and universal form, but few people seem to have enjoyed them more than English Benedictine monks. The Exeter Book, a tenth century monastic collection of Old English verse, builds on the riddle tradition in two striking ways: first, the riddles don’t come with answers; second, they are sexually suggestive. Were they intended to test the moral purity of the reader? Are they simply mischievous rhetorical exercises? Mary and Irina read some of them and consider why Anglo-Saxon culture was so obsessed with the enigmatic. Non-subscriber will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series including Mary and Irina's twelve-part series Medieval Beginnings, sign up: 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.

    11min

  10. 18 DE FEV.

    The Colloquies of Aelfric Bata

    All teachers know that the best way for students to learn a language is through swear words, and nobody knew this better than Aelfric Bata, a monk from Winchester whose Colloquies, compiled in around the year 1000, instructed pupils to swear in Latin with elaborate and vivid fluency. Mary and Irina work through some of Aelfric’s fruitier dialogues, and ask whether his examples can be taken purely in good humour. 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 Read more in the LRB: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n09/irina-dumitrescu/making-my-moan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    34min

  11. 18 DE JAN.

    Chaucer's Miller's Tale

    Were the Middle Ages funny? In this bonus series for 2024, Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley begin their quest for the medieval sense of humour with Chaucer’s 'Miller’s Tale', a story that is surely still (almost) as funny as when it was written six hundred years ago. But who is the real butt of the joke? Mary and Irina look in detail at the mechanics of the plot and its needless but pleasurable complexity, and consider the social significance of clothes and pubic hair in the tale. You can also watch a video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/_o1GdU5-O8U?si=ca_I-wnwR1HVGMqV 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 Read more on Chaucer in the LRB: Barbara Newman: Chaucer's Voices https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n22/barbara-newman/kek-kek!-kokkow!-quek-quek! Gabriel Josipovici: Imperfect Knight https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v02/n07/gabriel-josipovici/imperfect-knight Tom Shippey: Chaucer's Life https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n01/tom-shippey/nayled-to-the-wow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    29min
  • 11 episódios

Podcasts com benefícios de assinatura

  • 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.

    • 4,4 (36)
    • LIVROS

  • 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.

    • 5,0 (3)
    • LIVROS

  • Close Readings is a new multi-series podcast subscription from the London Review of Books exploring different periods of literature through selections of key works. A new episode will appear every month from each of our Close Readings series running this year. This feed is identical to the 'free' version of Close Readings, which contains free extracts for non-subscribers. Subscribers can listen to all the full episodes in both feeds: https://podcasts.apple.com/ug/podcast/close-readings/id1669485143 RUNNING IN 2024: ON SATIRE with Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell HUMAN CONDITIONS with Adam Shatz, Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards AMONG THE ANCIENTS II with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones MEDIEVAL LOLs with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley POLITICAL POEMS with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry 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 Also part of the Close Readings subscription, our past full series: MEDIEVAL BEGINNINGS with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley AMONG THE ANCIENTS with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones THE LONG AND SHORT with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry MODERN-ISH POETS SERIES 1 with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry (originally featured on the LRB Podcast) Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

    • 4,9 (35)
    • LIVROS

  • Adam Shatz talks separately to three guests – Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards – about some of the most revolutionary thought of the 20th century. Judith, Pankaj and Brent will each discuss four texts over four episodes, as they uncover the inner life of the 20th century through works that have sought to find freedom in different ways and remake the world around them. They explore, among other things, the development of arguments against racism and colonialism, the experience of artistic expression in oppressive conditions and how language has been used in politically substantive ways. Authors covered: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, V. S. Naipaul, Ashis Nandy, Doris Lessing, Nadezhda Mandelstam, W. E. B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde. Episodes will appear once a month throughout 2024, on the 10th of each month. Human Conditions is part of the Close Readings podcasts collection from the London Review of Books. To listen to the full episodes, subscribe to Close Readings: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 5,0 (3)
    • LIVROS

  • 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.

    • 0,0 (0)
    • LIVROS

  • Seamus Perry and Mark Ford return for a second series of their acclaimed, 'revolutionary, *****' (The Times) podcast series looking at the lives and works of poets in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Seamus Perry is Professor of English at the University of Oxford and Mark Ford is Professor of English at University College London. Modern-ish Poets is part of the Close Readings podcast collection from the London Review of Books. To listen to the first series of Modern-ish Poets, and to Seamus and Mark's twelve-part series The Long and Short, sign up to the Close Readings subscription: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 5,0 (1)
    • LIVROS
LRB CLOSE READINGS

Full access to all our Close Readings series

$ 5.99/mês ou $ 59.99/ano após o período de teste

Ver as perguntas frequentes sobre assinaturas

Sobre

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.

Informações

Mais de London Review of Books

Você também pode gostar de

Para ouvir episódios explícitos, inicie sessão.

Fique por dentro deste podcast

Inicie sessão ou crie uma conta para seguir podcasts, salvar episódios e receber as atualizações mais recentes.
Selecionar um país ou região

África, Oriente Médio e Índia

Ásia‑Pacífico

Europa

América Latina e Caribe

Estados Unidos e Canadá