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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: In the Shadow of Kafka

The Essay: In the Shadow of Kafka: Episode 5: Transformer

In the Shadow of Kafka

Episode 5

Episode 5: Transformer

Transformer

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, In the Shadow of Kafka, Transformer

Playwright Jeff Young explores the unusually powerful impact of Kafka's language.

Playwright Jeff Young explores the unusually powerful impact of Kafka's language, considering different translations of his work.

Franz Kafka means many things to many people. Five essayists explore the breadth of his thinking, his world and how his work still resonates for them as contemporary writers.

Part of In the Shadow of Kafka, Radio 3's current season, highlighting the work and influence of Franz Kafka.


5. Transformer - Jeff Young

Jeff first encountered Kafka as a surly teenager in the 1970s, when a kipper tie wearing art teacher put A Love Supreme by John Coltrane on the turntable during an art lesson and read aloud from Metamorphosis. The magic and mystery of Kafka's writing was made even powerful by the fact that it had been translated. Over time, Jeff collected and compared every new edition. His essay looks at the nature of translation, how it sits between the writer and the words and how that magical space allows the reader to discover his or her own version of the author and his intention.


Jeff Young is a playwright, for radio stage and screen. He has written about 30 radio plays, radio essays and drama documentaries. In 2014 his play 'Bright Phoenix' marked the 50th anniversary of Liverpool Everyman theatre.


Producer, Polly Thomas

A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 3.

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.

Leading writers explore the breadth of Czech author Franz Kafka's thinking

Series in which leading writers explore the breadth of Czech author Franz Kafka's thinking, his world and how his writing still resonates for them

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Episode 5: Transformer

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