Close Readings (subscription‪)‬ London Review of Books

In the fifth episode of Among the Ancients II we turn to Greek lyric, focusing on Pindar’s victory odes, considered a benchmark for the sublime since antiquity, and the vivid, narrative-driven dithyrambs of Bacchylides. Through close reading, Emily and Tom tease out allusions, lexical flourishes and formal experimentation, and explain the highly contextual nature of these tightly choreographed, public-facing poems. They illustrate how precarious work could be for a praise poet in a world driven by competition – striking the right note to please your patron, guarantee the next gig, and stay on good terms with the gods.

Further reading:

Leofranc Holford-Strevens: Dithyrambs for Athens
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v27/n04/leofranc-holford-strevens/dithyrambs-for-athens

Barbara Graziosi: Flower or Fungus?
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v27/n04/leofranc-holford-strevens/dithyrambs-for-athens

Fabliaux were short, witty tales originating in northern France between the 12th and 14th centuries, often featuring crafty characters in rustic settings and overwhelmingly concerned with money and sex. In this episode Irina and Mary look at two of these comic verses, both containing surprisingly explicit sexual language, and consider the ways in which they influenced Boccaccio, Chaucer and others.

Read more in the LRB:

Irina Dumitrescu: Making My Moan
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n09/irina-dumitrescu/making-my-moan

Tom Shippey: Women beware midwives
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v12/n09/tom-shippey/women-beware-midwives

Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

In the fourth episode of Human Conditions, the last of the series with Judith Butler, we fittingly turn to ‘The Human Condition’ (1956). Hannah Arendt defines action as the highest form of human activity: distinct from work and labour, action includes collaborative expression, collective decision-making and, crucially, initiating change. Focusing on the chapter on action, Judith joins Adam to explain why they consider this approach to be so innovative and incisive. Together, they discuss Arendt’s continued relevance and shortcomings, the book’s many surprising and baffling turns, and the transformative power of forgiveness. This conversation was recorded in December 2023.

Chapters in focus:
Prologue
V. Action

Buy the book: https://lrb.me/arendtcr

According to one contemporary, the Earl of Rochester was a man who, in life as well is in poetry, ‘could not speak with any warmth, without repeated Oaths, which, upon any sort of provocation, came almost naturally from him.’ It’s certainly hard to miss Rochester's enthusiastic use of obscenities, though their precise meanings can sometimes be obscure. As a courtier to Charles II, his poetic subject was most often the licentiousness and intricate political manoeuvring of the court’s various factions, and he was far from a passive observer. In this episode Clare and Colin consider why Restoration England was such a satirical hotbed, and describe the ways in which Rochester, with a poetry rich in bravado but shot through with anxiety, transformed the persona of the satirist.

Read more in the LRB:

Germaine Greer: Doomed to Sincerity
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n18/germaine-greer/doomed-to-sincerity

Terry Eagleton: In an Ocean of Elizabeths
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n20/terry-eagleton/in-an-ocean-of-elizabeths

Christopher Hill: Reason, Love and Life
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v02/n22/christopher-hill/reason-love-and-life

Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

Yeats’s great poem about the uprising of Irish republicans against British rule on 24 April 1916 marked a turning point in Ireland’s history and in Yeats's career. Through four stanzas Yeats enacts the transfiguration of the movement’s leaders – executed by the British shortly after the event – from ‘motley’ acquaintances to heroic martyrs, and interrogates his own attitude to nationalist violence. Mark and Seamus discuss Yeats’s reflections on the value of political commitment, his embrace of the role of national bard and the origin of the poem’s most famous line.
Read more in the LRB:
Terry Eagleton:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v16/n13/terry-eagleton/spooky
Colm Tóibín:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v38/n07/colm-toibin/after-i-am-hanged-my-portrait-will-be-interesting
Frank Kermode:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v19/n06/frank-kermode/what-he-did
Tom Paulin:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n06/tom-paulin/dreadful-sentiments

Some of the most compelling stories of the Classical world come from Herodotus‘ Histories, an account of the Persian Wars and a thousand things besides. Emily and Tom chart a course through Herodotus‘ history-as-epic, discussing how best to understand his approach to history, ethnography and myth. Exploring a work full of surprising, dramatic and frequently funny digressions, this episode illustrates the artfulness and deep structure underpinning the Histories, and, despite his obvious Greek bias, Herodotus‘ genuine interest in and respect for cultural difference.