AC Grayling, Obsession with the Past, Amitav Ghosh, Tarell Alvin McCraney
Presented by Philip Dodd. With AC Grayling on the New College of the Humanities, a debate on our obsession with the past, Amitav Ghosh on his new novel, and Tarell Alvin McCraney.
As philosopher A C Grayling announces the foundation of the New College of the Humanities, Philip Dodd brings him together with critic Terry Eagleton to discuss the new venture. What will the students be taught?
In a new book called Retromania, the music writer Simon Reynolds argues that contemporary pop culture is addicted to the past. But what about the renaissance's attraction to the classical past, or the Victorians' penchant for the medieval gothic? Philip Dodd and historians, Rosemary Sweet and Roger Luckhurst, ask how new is our love of the old?
Amitav Ghosh is the bestelling author of the Sea of Poppies, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008. He joins Philip to discuss the next in the epic trilogy, a sweeping swashbuckling tale set during the Opium Wars.
And Philip talks to American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney about his new RSC commission opening at the Hampstead Theatre this week.
Producer: Deborah Cohen.
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- Tue 7 Jun 2011 22:00成人快手 Radio 3
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