John Carey
Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Oxford University
7 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Martin Palmer, Laura Marcus
Covers topics in categories such as:
Heaven
Melvyn Bragg discusses heaven and the afterlife, from Ancient Egypt, Zoroastrianism and Judaism through to Christianity, the arch promoter of heaven.
22 December 2005
Also featuring: Valery Rees, Martin Palmer
Modernist Utopias
Melvyn Bragg discusses the mad, bad world of modern utopias where babies are hatched from test tubes, where women live without men, where machines have taken over, and where the poor are exterminated.
10 March 2005
Also featuring: Steven Connor, Laura Marcus
The Fall
Melvyn Bragg discusses the idea of original sin and its impact on politics, gender and notions of morality in western culture, examining Augustine, Milton, the Masaccio frescoes and Charles Darwin.
8 April 2004
Also featuring: Martin Palmer, Griselda Pollock
The Epic
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the epic form, from it's creation by Homer to its more modern incarnations in the hands of James Joyce, J R R Tolkien and Philip Pullman.
6 February 2003
Also featuring: Karen Edwards, Oliver Taplin
Milton
Melvyn Bragg examines the literary and political career of the 17th century poet John Milton, examining work such as Paradise Lost as well as his role as propagandist during the English Civil War.
7 March 2002
Also featuring: Lisa Jardine, Blair Worden
Mythopoeic writersChristian humanistsBlind writersEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsPeople from the City of LondonLiteracy and society theorists17th-century English dramatists and playwrights17th-century English philosophersEnglish writers with disabilitiesBritish philosophers of religionPamphleteersNeoclassical writersRhetoriciansBritish free speech activistsEpic poetsChristian poetsSocial philosophersMale essayistsAnglican poetsDeaths from kidney failure in the United KingdomMetaphor theoristsEnglish DissentersRhetoric theoristsAlumni of Christ's College, Cambridge17th-century writers in LatinLiterary theoristsCritics of the Catholic ChurchEnglish male poets17th-century English writersEnglish theologians17th-century English poetsEnglish Anglican theologiansWriters from LondonAnti-Catholicism in the United KingdomBlind poetsCalvinist and Reformed poetsSonneteersAnglican philosophers17th-century English educatorsEnglish essayistsEnglish political philosophersEnlightenment philosophersEnglish educational theoristsWriters about activism and social changeEnglish non-fiction writersEnglish republicans17th-century English male writersLiterary Modernism
Melvyn Bragg discusses literary modernism. The literary movement that embraced Joyce, DH Lawrence, TS Eliot, Virginia Woolf in the early decades of the twentieth century.
26 April 2001
Also featuring: Laura Marcus, Valentine Cunningham
Utopia
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of the concept of Utopia, examines real and fictional examples, and explores why we are as enthralled as ever by the idea of it.
7 October 1999
Also featuring: A. C. Grayling