logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2025
1 h

671 Shakespeare's Tragic Art (with Rhodr...

Jacke Wilson / The Podglomerate
About this episode

It is a truth universally acknowledged that tragedy is one of the world's highest art forms, and that Shakespeare was one of the form's greatest practitioners. But how did he do it? What models did he have to draw upon, and where did he innovate? In this episode, Jacke talks to Shakespeare scholar Rhodri Lewis about his new book Shakespeare's Tragic Art, a new account of Shakespearean tragedy as a response to life in an uncertain world. PLUS Joel Warner (The Curse of the Marquis de Sade: A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read.

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com.

Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up next
Jul 7
714 The Real Charles Dickens (with Stephen Browning and Simon Thomas) | Dickens and the Theatre
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) led one of the most colorful and interesting lives of any author. But while many of us are familiar with his unforgettable characters and fantastically successful novels, we often don't know the details of his difficult early life, his success as a rep ... Show More
1h 25m
Jul 7
715 How Did George Eliot and the Victorians Respond to Climate Collapse? (with Nathan Hensley) | People at Museums Are Losing Their Brains! | My Last Book with Stephen Browning and Simon Thomas
What does feel like to live helplessly in a world that is coming undone? If you're alive in 2025, you are probably very familiar with this feeling - and if you'd been alive in the age of Victorian literature, you might have felt that way too. In this episode, Jacke talks to autho ... Show More
1h 12m
Jul 3
713 The Odyssey (with Daniel Mendelsohn) | The History of Literature Podcast Tour!
Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest surviving works of literature - and yet, somehow, it can also feel like one of the newest. The inventive narrative structure, complex hero, and surprisingly modern themes still feel fresh, thousands of years after the poem's genesis. In this e ... Show More
1h 34m
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2014
Shakespeare vs Milton: The Kings of English Literature Debate
Nearly four centuries after his death, no writer has come close to matching Shakespeare’s understanding of the world – or his gift for dramatic poetry. It’s not just kings and queens that he captured so uniquely in his transcendent verse. Shakespeare analysed the human condition, ... Show More
2h 14m
Jun 2024
Christopher Marlowe (with Will Tosh)
Today's special guest is Will Tosh, Head of Research at Shakespeare's Globe, London, and the author of a new book, “Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare.” Having answered the obvious question in the prologue, the book becomes a sort of emotional biography ... Show More
1h 16m
Sep 2024
William Shakespeare: The Playwright Who Changed the World
In this episode, we explore the life and stories of William Shakespeare, one of the most famous writers in history. We'll talk about how he grew up in a small town and went on to write amazing plays like "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet." You'll learn fun facts about his life, what ... Show More
11m 23s
Jul 2024
CLASSIC: Will the real Shakespeare please stand up?
Playwright William Shakespeare is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential writers in the English language, and his plays have been read or performed millions of times around the world. He was also quite prolific: Between about 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote at least ... Show More
1h 3m
Jul 2024
Among the Ancients II: Plautus and Terence
In episode seven, we turn to some of the earliest surviving examples of Roman literature: the raucous, bawdy and sometimes bewildering world of Roman comedy. Setting the tone for centuries of playwrights (and school curricula), Plautus and Terence came from the margins of Roman s ... Show More
14m 27s
Jun 2021
William Shakespeare
Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of the Life of William Shakespeare.----more---- William Shakespeare was born into Tudor England 500 years ago. He wrote some of the most famous plays in history. We tell the story of Hamlet and Ellie points out that this the same st ... Show More
9m 2s
Nov 2023
Richard Schoch, "Shakespeare’s House: A Window onto his Life and Legacy" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
In the wide realm of Shakespeare worship, the house in Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare was born in 1564 – known colloquially as the 'Birthplace' – remains the chief shrine. It's not as romantic as Anne Hathaway's thatched cottage, it's not where he wrote any of his ... Show More
59m 26s
May 3
The Tragedy of Richard II by William Shakespeare ~ Full Audiobook
The Tragedy of Richard II by William Shakespeare audiobook. Step into a world of regal splendor and heartrending betrayal with the audiobook of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Richard II, where every syllable of his majestic verse is brought to life by a masterful narrator w ... Show More
3h 11m
Mar 2025
Love and Death: ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ by Thomas Gray
Situated on the cusp of the Romantic era, Thomas Gray’s work is a mixture of impersonal Augustan abstraction and intense subjectivity. ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ is one of the most famous poems in the English language, and continues to exert its influence on contempo ... Show More
15m 21s
Dec 2024
Was Shakespeare's Dark Lady A Witch? (with Mary McMyne)
William Shakespeare dedicated many of his sonnets to someone known only as the Dark Lady. Novelist Mary McMyne imagines that this was maybe a witch named Rose in her new novel, A Rose by Any Other Name. Mary joins us to talk about her book, and Shakespeare, in this week's episode ... Show More
58m 13s