Modernist writers
Literary modernism has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and North America. Modernism is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry and verse.
6 episodes
Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:
Camus
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Nobel Prize winning Algerian-French writer and existentialist philosopher Albert Camus.
3 January 2008
Featuring: Peter Dunwoodie, David Walker, Christina Howells
Culture20th-century French dramatists and playwrightsFrench socialistsPhilosophers of pessimismFrench male essayistsLegion of Honour refusals20th-century atheistsFrench anarchists, French anti-capitalists, French anti-fascists20th-century French philosophersAnti-Stalinist leftModernist writers20th-century French male writers20th-century French novelistsAbsurdist writersFrench humanistsNobel laureates in LiteratureFrench Nobel laureatesAtheist philosophersLibertarian socialistsPhilosophers of death20th-century French essayists, 20th-century French short story writersExistentialistsFrench atheists20th centuryFranceDylan Thomas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works and ideas of this celebrated Welsh poet, from his teenage success to his tours of America via Under Milk Wood.
16 June 2022
Featuring: Nerys Williams, John Goodby, Leo Mellor
Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce's groundbreaking 1916 novel about growing up in Catholic Ireland.
26 November 2009
Featuring: Roy Foster, Katherine Mullin, Jeri Johnson
CultureIrish satirists20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsModernist writersTrope theoristsHumor researchersIrish expatriates in FranceIrish male dramatists and playwrightsMetaphor theoristsDeaths from ulcersIrish male novelistsSurrealist writersEyepatch wearersModernism20th-century letter writersIrony theorists20th-century Irish novelists, 20th-century Irish short story writers, Irish male short story writersIrish male poetsLiterary theorists20th centuryIrelandKafka's The Trial
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Franz Kafka's novel The Trial.
27 November 2014
Featuring: Elizabeth Boa, Steve Connor, Ritchie Robertson
CultureMagic realism writersModernist writersJewish socialistsJewish atheistsJewish existentialistsAustrian atheistsAbsurdist writers20th-century deaths from tuberculosisAphoristsFabulists20th-century Austrian male writers, Jewish novelists, Jews from Austria-Hungary, Writers from Austria-HungaryCharles University alumni20th centuryLawProust
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and achievements of the 19th century French novelist Marcel Proust whose 3000 page work À La Recherche du Temps Perdu has been called the definitive modern novel.
17 April 2003
Featuring: Jacqueline Rose, Malcolm Bowie, Robert Fraser
Lycée Condorcet alumniDeaths from pneumonia in France, Prix Goncourt winnersFrench literary criticsConversationalistsFrench essayistsFrench male non-fiction writersFormer Roman Catholics20th-century mystics20th-century atheistsFrench short story writers20th-century French philosophers19th-century atheistsPeople with hypochondriasisModernist writersBurials at Père Lachaise Cemetery19th-century French philosophersFrench philosophers of art20th-century French novelistsFrench Roman Catholic writersFrench LGBTQ novelistsWriters from Paris19th-century French LGBTQ people, 20th-century French LGBTQ people20th-century French essayists, 20th-century French short story writersLGBTQ Roman CatholicsAphorists19th-century mysticsFrench atheistsPhilosophers of literature19th century20th centuryFranceSamuel Beckett
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the author of Waiting for Godot, who lived in Paris and wrote in French as he found that more difficult than writing in English
17 January 2019
Featuring: Steven Connor, Laura Salisbury, Mark Nixon
CultureIrish male dramatists and playwrightsIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poetsFormer Anglicans20th-century Irish novelists, 20th-century Irish short story writers, Irish male short story writersPeople with Parkinson's diseasePhilosophers of pessimismIrish writers in French, People educated at Portora Royal SchoolAlumni of Trinity College DublinIrish male novelistsIrish essayistsScholars of Trinity College DublinModernist writersBurials at Montparnasse CemeteryIrish expatriates in FranceAcademics of Trinity College DublinAnti-natalistsAbsurdist writersFrench Resistance membersNobel laureates in LiteratureFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesWriters from Dublin (city)20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsPrix Italia winners20th-century essayistsExistentialists20th centuryIrelandMedicine