Arts & Ideas

Can causing offence be a good thing? Philip Dodd explores this question with the Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Zizek, the American author, Camille Paglia and the Danish journalist, Flemming Rose. Camille Paglia is a Professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia whose Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson was rejected by seven publishers before it became a best-seller. Flemming Rose was Culture Editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten when in September 2005 it published a series of cartoons of Muhammad which caused controversy. Like A Thief In Broad Daylight: Power in the Era of Post-Human Capitalism by Slavoj Zizek is out now. Provocations: Collected Essays by Camille Paglia will be available from October 9th. Flemming Rose is the author of The Tyranny of Silence, and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Washington DC. Our playlist looking at Culture Wars and Discussions about Identity can be found here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06jngzt

Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie talk to Matthew Sweet about how humour changes and the targets of their TV comedy show which ran during the '70s and early '80s. A box set of the 67 half hour episodes is being released. Producer: Harry Parker.

How Nietzsche might have responded to current debates, including Trump, 'post-truth', identity and Europe. Kwame Anthony Appiah talks about his new work on identity and biographer Sue Prideaux and philosophers Hugo Drochon and Katrina Mitcheson join Matthew Sweet to think about Nietzsche. I Am Dynamite! A Life of Nietzsche by Sue Prideaux is published on October 30th. Her books include Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream, which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and Strindberg: A Life, which received the Duff Cooper Prize and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Kwame Anthony Appiah is the author of books including As If, Idealization Ideals, Cosmpolitan: Ethics in a World of Strangers and his new book which draws on his thinking for BBC Radio 4's Reith Lectures is called The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity.You can find a playlist of discussions about Culture Wars and Identity here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06jngztProducer: Luke Mulhall.

Rana Mitter talks to poet and writer Ben Okri and writer and journalist Agnes Poirier about the contemporary resonance of The Outsider by Albert Camus (1913-1960), and as a new biography of the anthropological giant, Claude Levi-Strauss by Emmanuelle Loyer comes out in English, he talks to anthropologist, Adam Kuper about travel, anthropology and how we classify. Rana is also joined by Peter Moore who has written a history of the ship Endeavour which carried James Cook on his first explorations of the southern ocean. The Outsider (L’Étranger publ 1942) by Albert Camus adapted for the stage by Ben Okri runs at Print Room at the Coronet in London 14 Sep – 13 Oct 2018. Agnes Poirier: The Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-50 is out nowEndeavour: The Ship and the Attitude that Changed the World by Peter Moore is out now. Oceania runs at the Royal Academy in London from 29 September — 10 December 2018. Adam Kuper, Visiting Professor of Anthropology, LSE and Boston University.Emmanuelle Loyer is a historian at Sciences Po. Lévi-Strauss : A Biography, by Emmanuelle Loyer, was awarded the 2015 Prix Femina Essai and has now been translated into English by Ninon Vinsonneau & Jonathan Magidoff. Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009).Look for BBC Ideas or use this link - https://bbc.in/2xitWPt - to see a short film about the thoughts of post war Paris Philosophers and Existentialism on our programme notes. It’s part of their playlist of what different Isms mean

Ideas of tryanny, martyrdom, sin and grace in a new play set against Indian politics today and an exhibition which might be called pornographic. April De Angelis has relocated a Lope De Vega play to contemporary India, and a backdrop of political unrest. The original Fuenteovejuna was inspired by an incident in 1476 when inhabitants of a village banded together to seek retribution on a commander who mistreated them. The Spanish Baroque artist and printmaker, Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652) is known for his depictions of human suffering, a popular subject for artists during the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The curator Xavier Bray looks at this savage imagery. Then historian Gillian Clark and theologian John Milbank discuss the legacy of Augustine of Hippo. Anne McElvoy presents. The Village runs at the Theatre Royal Stratford East from 7 Sep - 6 OcT 2018 written by April De Angelis and directed by Nadia Fall. Ribera: Art of Violence runs at Dulwich Picture Gallery from Sept 26th to Jan 27th 2019. Gillian Clark has edited Augustine: Confessions Books I-IV; Augustine: The Confessions and she's working on a commentary of Augustine's City of God. John Milbank directs the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham. His books include Paul's New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology, With Slavoj Žižek and Creston Davis; the essay "Postmodern Critical Augustinianism: A Short Summa in Forty-two Responses to Unasked Questions", found in The Postmodern God: a Theological Reader, edited by Graham WardProducer: Torquil MacLeod

Bettany Hughes and Alex Clark discuss feminist retellings of The Iliad. Rachel Stirling reads extracts.

The author of Birdsong talks to Anne McElvoy in one of the first conversations about his new novel. Sebastian Faulks discusses depicting France past and present from World War I to Algeria and immigration now as he publishes his latest novel called Paris Echo. Recorded with an audience at the BBC Proms. Producer: Fiona McLean

Deborah Frances-White host of podcast The Guilty Feminist joins Catherine Fletcher. Novelist Michèle Roberts reviews a portrait of artist Louise Bourgeois woven from conversations, and comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes discusses co-writing a modern political comedy based on The Assembly Women by Aristophanes, whilst Jeanie O'Hare talks about filling in the gaps in Shakespeare's depiction of Queen Margaret in her new play. Now, Now Louison written by Jean Frémon, translated by Cole Swensen and published by Les Fugitives is out now. Deborah Frances-White has published The Guilty Feminist as a book out now. Women In Power - A Musical Comedy runs at the Nuffield Southampton Theatres from 06 September, 2018 - 29 September, 2018. It has been written by Wendy Cope, Jenny Eclair, Suhayla El-Bushra, Natalie Haynes, Shappi Khorsandi, Brona C Titley and Jess Phillips MP and is directed by Blanche McIntyre. Queen Margaret runs at the Royal Exchange, Manchester from Sept 14th to Oct 6th featuring Jade Anouka as Queen Margaret.Producer: Fiona McLean

A silent room and a design to encourage disobedience are amongst the exhibits that Matthew Sweet and Laurence Scott visit at the London Design Biennale as they consider the role of Design in the week the V&A opens a new museum in Dundee. New Generation Thinker Kylie Murray talks about her discoveries of scribblings in the margins of books and what they tell us about Dundee's connections with France in late medieval times. Plus film critic Peter Biskind explores the effect of superhero and zombie movies on the American psyche.The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids and Superheroes Made America Great For Extremism by Peter Biskind is out now. Laurence Scott is the author of Picnic, Comma, Lightning: In Search of a New Reality; The Four Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World. Kylie Murray is a Fellow, Lecturer, and Director of Studies in English at Christ’s College, Cambridge whose research specialism is the literature of Medieval and Early-Modern Scotland, c.1100-c.1625 in Scots, French, and LatinThe London Design Biennale runs until September 23rd. The V&A in Dundee designed by Kengo Kuma opens with a 3D Festival this weekend. Design Research for Change is a showcase of 67 Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded Design research projects at Truman Brewery, London from 20th – 23rd September 2018.Producer: Craig Smith

The Booker long-listed crime writer, Belinda Bauer and the novelist, Patricia Duncker, join Matthew Sweet to discuss sex and death in literature. Embracing everything from Emily Bronte to Margaret Atwood they consider the challenges and the pitfalls posed by both subjects and whether they’re easier to approach now than they were in the past.Producer: Zahid Warley