Past Programs
Books - 2008
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004
Alexander Solzhenitsyn revisited
10/08/2008
Alexander Solzhenitsyn has died at the age of 89. His work is testament to the power of the written word to change the world. We revisit a powerful program on Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, first broadcast in 2007. Master interviewer Terry Lane interrogates a great work of art, and the uncompromising life of its creator.
Massey Lectures 2007: The City of Words, Lecture 5,The Screen of Hal
27/04/2008
In his final lecture, Alberto Manguel examines an unfinished novel by Jack London. In The Assassination Bureau, a shady organisation believes it can purify society by killing off 'undesirables'. Manguel compares London's dark creation with our world of interconnected multinational corporations who, he says, hide behind a screen of countless anonymous shareholders, threatening the planet and our very humanity.
For copyright reasons this series is not available as a podcast
Massey Lectures 2007: The City of Words, Lecture 4, The Books of Don Quixote
20/04/2008
Alberto Manguel's focus today is on one of the most cherished stories of the western canon. In the 17th century a returned Spanish soldier turned writer dreamed up a bookish and impoverished old gentleman who decides one day to become a knight errant. What can Don Quixote tell us about the quest for a peaceful civilisation?
For copyright reasons this series is not available as a podcast
Massey Lectures 2007: The City of Words, Lecture 3, The Bricks of Babel
13/04/2008
In the biblical account, the people of Babel suffered a terrible curse: to be scattered throughout the world and be given different languages. This, it was written, was why friction and misunderstanding began to develop between people as there was no longer a common form of communication. But is there another reading to this tale? Why is it that a diversity of languages and culture are in some places celebrated and yet the tensions remain? In his third talk, Alberto Manguel searches the story of Babel for clues to mending a wounded world.
For copyright reasons this series is not available as a podcast
Massey Lectures 2007: The City of Words, Lecture 2, The Tablets of Gilgamesh
06/04/2008
Living together with our differences is understood as a practical project, mostly civic and political. But can stories, in all their variety, play a part? In the 2007 Massey Lectures, writer Alberto Manguel takes a fresh look at living peacefully together, using the best that poets and writers have had to say about the matter. In his second lecture Manguel revisits the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh; a story of how a city was made magnificent and just.
For copyright reasons this series is not available as a podcast
