Original version

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: Shakespeare 400

The Essay: Shakespeare 400: Episode 2: Shakespeare 400: Undiscovered Countries - Shakespeare and the Nation

Shakespeare 400: Undiscovered Countries - Shakespeare and the Nation

Episode 2

Episode 2: Shakespeare 400: Undiscovered Countries - Shakespeare and the Nation

Shakespeare 400

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Shakespeare 400, Shakespeare 400: Undiscovered Countries - Shakespeare and the NationClose menu

James Loxley explores what Shakespeare's plays say about questions of national identity.

Professor James Loxley explores what light Shakespeare's plays might throw on questions of national identity and the political debates that can grow up around them.

Four centuries after Shakespeare's death, young scholars share new evaluations of his work - in a series of essays recorded in front of an audience in Shakespeare's old classroom at the Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon. 


2.James Loxley on Undiscovered Countries: Shakespeare and the Nation

At a time when relationships between the UK and the rest of Europe, and between the UK's own constituent nations, looks more unsettled than for many years, James Loxley explores what light Shakespeares plays might throw on tricky questions of national identity and the political debates that can grow up around them.

James starts by considering Henry V, for which Shakespeare is often depicted as a celebrant of untroubled Englishness, giong on to explain that during Shakespeare's most creative period, the very name and nature of the country was in dispute, with the concept of "Great Britain" becoming a prospect for the first time.

And he concludes by wondering how Shakespeare's plays can help us understand our own national questions today.

James Loxley is Professor of Early Modern Literature in the University of Edinburgh

BBC Radio 3 is marking the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare with a season celebrating the four centuries of music and performance that his plays and sonnets have inspired. 

Producer: Beaty Rubens.

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.

Five young scholars share new evaluations of Shakespeare's work

Five young scholars share new evaluations of Shakespeare's work in a series recorded in front of an audience at the Bard's old classroom at the Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Essay

Shakespeare 400

Episode 2: Shakespeare 400: Undiscovered Countries - Shakespeare and the Nation

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3