In Our Time: Culture

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great novels of China’s Ming era, and perhaps the most loved. Written in 1592, it draws on the celebrated travels of a real monk from China to India a thousand years before, and on a thousand years of retellings of that story, especially the addition of a monkey as companion who, in the novel, becomes supersimian. For most readers the monk, Tripitaka, is upstaged by this irrepressible Monkey with his extraordinary powers, accompanied by the fallen but recovering deities, Pigsy and Sandy.The image above, from the caricature series Yoshitoshi ryakuga or Sketches by Yoshitoshi, is of Monkey creating an army by plucking out his fur and blowing it into the air, and each hair becomes a monkey-warrior.With Julia Lovell Professor of Modern Chinese History and Literature at Birkbeck, University of LondonChiung-yun Evelyn Liu Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, TaiwanAndCraig Clunas Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Trinity College, University of OxfordProducer: Simon Tillotson

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43BC-17/18AD) who, as he described it, was destroyed by 'carmen et error', a poem and a mistake. His works have been preserved in greater number than any of the poets of his age, even Virgil, and have been among the most influential. The versions of many of the Greek and Roman myths we know today were his work, as told in his epic Metamorphoses and, together with his works on Love and the Art of Love, have inspired and disturbed readers from the time they were created. Despite being the most prominent poet in Augustan Rome at the time, he was exiled from Rome to Tomis on the Black Sea Coast where he remained until he died. It is thought that the 'carmen' that led to his exile was the Art of Love, Ars Amatoria, supposedly scandalising Augustus, but the 'error' was not disclosed.With Maria Wyke Professor of Latin at University College LondonGail Trimble Brown Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Trinity College at the University of OxfordAnd Dunstan Lowe Senior Lecturer in Latin Literature at the University of KentProducer: Simon Tillotson

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Euripides' great tragedy, which was first performed in Athens in 405 BC when the Athenians were on the point of defeat and humiliation in a long war with Sparta. The action seen or described on stage was brutal: Pentheus, king of Thebes, is torn into pieces by his mother in a Bacchic frenzy and his grandparents condemned to crawl away as snakes. All this happened because Pentheus had denied the divinity of his cousin Dionysus, known to the audience as god of wine, theatre, fertility and religious ecstasy. The image above is a detail of a Red-Figure Cup showing the death of Pentheus (exterior) and a Maenad (interior), painted c. 480 BC by the Douris painter. This object can be found at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.With Edith Hall Professor of Classics at King’s College LondonEmily Wilson Professor of Classical Studies at the University of PennsylvaniaAndRosie Wyles Lecturer in Classical History and Literature at the University of KentProducer: Simon Tillotson

In this 900th edition of the programme, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the best known and most influential of the poems of the Romantic movement. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1798 after discussions with his friend Wordsworth. He refined it for the rest of his life, and it came to define him, a foreshadowing of his opium-addicted, lonely wandering and deepening sense of guilt. The poem tells of a sailor compelled to tell and retell the story of a terrible voyage in his youth, this time as guests are heading to a wedding party, where he stoppeth one of three.The image above is from Gustave Doré's illustration of the mariner's shooting of the albatross, for an 1877 German language edition of the poemWithSir Jonathan Bate Professor of Environmental Humanities at Arizona State UniversityTom Mole Professor of English Literature and Book History at the University of EdinburghAnd Rosemary Ashton Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College LondonProducer: Simon Tillotson

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most famous museum objects in the world, shown in the image above in replica, and dating from around 196 BC. It is a damaged, dark granite block on which you can faintly see three scripts engraved: Greek at the bottom, Demotic in the middle and Hieroglyphs at the top. Napoleon’s soldiers found it in a Mamluk fort at Rosetta on the Egyptian coast, and soon realised the Greek words could be used to unlock the hieroglyphs. It was another 20 years before Champollion deciphered them, becoming the first to understand the hieroglyphs since they fell out of use 1500 years before and so opening up the written culture of ancient Egypt to the modern age.With Penelope Wilson Associate Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at Durham UniversityCampbell Price Curator of Egypt and Sudan at the Manchester MuseumAndRichard Bruce Parkinson Professor of Egyptology and Fellow of The Queen’s College, University of OxfordProducer: Simon Tillotson

Delve into the enigmatic world of Jay Gatsby, as scholars unravel his obsession with rekindling his romance with Daisy Buchanan amidst the opulence of the Jazz Age. Explore F. Scott Fitzgerald's unique influences and the stark contrasts between wealth and reality in American life. Discover the poetic artistry embedded in Gatsby's tragic tale and analyze the evolving perception of this classic novel, from its rocky beginnings to its modern acclaim. The rich layers of humor and social satire further enrich the conversation on ambition and the American Dream.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Portuguese poet Pessoa (1888-1935) who was largely unknown in his lifetime but who, in 1994, Harold Bloom included in his list of the 26 most significant western writers since the Middle Ages. Pessoa wrote in his own name but mainly in the names of characters he created, each with a distinctive voice and biography, which he called heteronyms rather than pseudonyms, notably Ricardo Reis, Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos and one who was closer to Pessoa's own identity, Bernardo Soares. Most of Pessoa's works were unpublished at his death, discovered in a trunk; as more and more was printed and translated, his fame and status grew.WithCláudia Pazos-Alonso Professor of Portuguese and Gender Studies and Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College, University of OxfordJuliet Perkins Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Portuguese Studies at King’s College LondonAndPaulo de Medeiros Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of WarwickProducer: Simon Tillotson

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) who achieved fame throughout Europe for the power of his images. These range from his woodcut of a rhinoceros, to his watercolour of a young hare, to his drawing of praying hands and his stunning self-portraits such as that above (albeit here in a later monochrome reproduction) with his distinctive A D monogram. He was expected to follow his father and become a goldsmith, but found his own way to be a great artist, taking public commissions that built his reputation but did not pay, while creating a market for his prints, and he captured the timeless and the new in a world of great change.With Susan Foister Deputy Director and Curator of German Paintings at the National GalleryGiulia Bartrum Freelance art historian and Former Curator of German Prints and Drawings at the British MuseumAndUlinka Rublack Professor of Early Modern European History and Fellow of St John’s College, University of CambridgeStudio production: John Goudie

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Langland's poem, written around 1370, about a man called Will who fell asleep on the Malvern Hills and dreamed of Piers the Plowman. This was a time between the Black Death and The Peasants’ Revolt, when Christians wanted to save their souls but doubted how best to do it - and had to live with that uncertainty. Some call this the greatest medieval poem in English, one offering questions not answers, and it can be as unsettling now as it was then.WithLaura Ashe Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, University of OxfordLawrence Warner Professor of Medieval English at King’s College LondonAnd Alastair Bennett Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Royal Holloway, University of LondonProducer: Simon Tillotson

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. When three witches prophesy that Macbeth will be king one day, he is not prepared to wait and almost the next day he murders King Duncan as he sleeps, a guest at Macbeth’s castle. From there we explore their brutal world where few boundaries are distinct – between safe and unsafe, friend and foe, real and unreal, man and beast – until Macbeth too is slaughtered.The image above shows Nicol Williamson as Macbeth in a 1983 BBC TV adaptation.With:Emma Smith Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of OxfordKiernan Ryan Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of LondonAnd David Schalkwyk, Professor of Shakespeare Studies and Director of Global Shakespeare at Queen Mary, University of LondonProducer: Simon Tillotson