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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: The Life Cycle of a Fictional Character - An Alternative History of the Novel

The Essay: The Life Cycle of a Fictional Character - An Alternative History of the Novel: Episode 5: Death

The Life Cycle of a Fictional Character - An Alternative History of the Novel

Episode 5

Episode 5: Death

Death

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The Life Cycle of a Fictional Character - An Alternative History of the Novel, DeathClose menu

Critic James Wood explores how the novel deals with death.

Critic James Wood explores aspects of novelistic technique through a fictional character.

We have talked a lot about life, and its crucial nutrients - thought, talk, sensation, knowing others, our sense of self. How does the novel deal with the end of life, and the absence of all this? 

Presenter
James Wood was the tyro lead fiction reviewer on the Guardian for several years. He now is a professor at Harvard.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Critic James Wood explores aspects of novelistic technique through a fictional character

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The Essay

The Life Cycle of a Fictional Character - An Alternative History of the Novel

Episode 5: Death

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