Synopses & Reviews
From the 1940s to the 1960s, Elizabeth Bowen wrote essays, improvised interviews, and delivered public lectures for radio broadcast. Though she suffered from a pronounced stammer (she worried her recorded voice sounded alien, like the voice of a stranger) Bowen was nevertheless a spellbinding speaker. Invited to university campuses in the U.S. and the U.K., she delivered important speeches on language, the fear of pleasure, character in fiction, the idea of American homes, and other topics. Inveterately curious, Bowen wrote about media as a personal and social force. Without fuss or pretension, she documents her love of 1930s cinema and the making of Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Her first efforts at radio were adaptations of her own short stories and dramatizations of literary subjects. Then she quickly turned to cultural commentary. In this regard, radio and speech shaped Bowen's persona as a public intellectual capable of speaking on numerous subjects with general wit and insight. Listening In gathers a substantial number of Bowen's ungathered and unknown works, and when combined with The Bazaar and Other Stories and People, Places, Things: Essays by Elizabeth Bowen, a complete portrait of Bowen's voice within modernism is achieved. Bowen comments on writers such as Katherine Mansfield, Jane Austen, and Frances Burney in her broadcasts; recites an essay about the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II; and sheds light on women's roles in postwar Europe.
Synopsis
Brings together a substantial number of Elizabeth Bowen's ungathered and unknown radio broadcasts, interviews and public lectures.
Synopsis
The novelist Elizabeth Bowen believed that media was a personal and social force. From the 1940s to the 1960s, she took an active role in the media and radio in particular by writing essays for radio broadcast, improvising interviews on the air and giving public lectures. Despite her pronounced stammer and her complaints that reading her own work gave her lockjaw, she was a spellbinding talker. Bowen became known as a public intellectual capable of talking on numerous subjects with wit and general insight. Invited to university campuses in the UK and US, she delivered important lectures on language, the 'fear of pleasure', character in fiction, the idea of American homes and other topics. Her first efforts for radio were adaptations of her own short stories and dramatizations of literary subjects. She quickly turned to commentary on culture, such as the beginning of the BBC Third Programme and the atmosphere in postwar Czechoslovakia. She documented her love of cinema in the 1930s and the making of Lawrence of Arabia in the 1960s, and broadcast on Queen Elizabeth II, Frances Burney and Jane Austen. During her lifetime, Bowen published few of her broadcasts. Listening In brings together a substantial number of her ungathered and unknown works for the first time. Key Featureso The third volume from Edinburgh University Press that brings Bowen's previously ungathered and unknown works to the reading publico Advances scholarly knowledge about radio in modernism and makes Bowen's voice known within modernist media studieso Helps to define the public role of the writer and women's roles in the postwar yearso An exciting new source for students of adaptation, both in Bowen's adaptations of her own work for radio and her broadcasts about Jane Austen and Frances Burney.
Synopsis
From the 1940s to the 1960s, Elizabeth Bowen took an active role in spoken media and radio in particular by writing essays for broadcast, improvising interviews on the air and giving public lectures. During her lifetime, she published few of her broadcasts. Listening In brings together a substantial number of her ungathered and unknown works for the first time.
Bowen was known as a public intellectual capable of talking on numerous subjects with wit and general insight. Invited to university campuses in the UK and US, she delivered important lectures on language, the 'fear of pleasure', character in fiction, the idea of American homes and other topics. Her first efforts for radio were adaptations of her own short stories and dramatizations of literary subjects. She quickly turned to commentary on culture, such as the beginning of the BBC Third Programme and the atmosphere in postwar Czechoslovakia. She documented her love of cinema in the 1930s and the making of Lawrence of Arabia in the 1960s, and broadcast on Queen Elizabeth II, Katherine Mansfield, Frances Burney and Jane Austen.
About the Author
Allan Hepburn is Associate Professor of English at the McGill University in Montreal