The Essay: New Generation Thinkers

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

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The Essay: New Generation Thinkers 2022: The South African Bloomsberries

The South African Bloomsberries

New Generation Thinkers 2022

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, New Generation Thinkers 2022, The South African Bloomsberries

Jade Munslow Ong reads 20s writing by Solomon T Plaatje, Roy Campbell and William Plomer.

An exploration of connections between three writers of a magazine called Voorslag or Whiplash and the Woolfs. And why a founder of the ANC presents us with a literary what if...

Race relations aren't always thought of as being linked with the experimental writing and art promoted by the Bloomsbury set in 1920s Britain but New Generation Thinker Jade Munslow Ong, from the University of Salford, argues that without a group of South African authors who came to Britain we might not have Virginia Woolf's Orlando.  But Roy Campbell, William Plomer and Laurens Van der Post weren't the only writers from that country with a Bloomsbury connection.  A founder of the Native National Congress - later the ANC - was also hard at work on a novel which depicted an interracial friendship. 

Producer: Ruth Thomson

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year to turn their research into essays, features and discussions.  You can find a collection featuring their insights on the Free Thinking programme page, available on BBC Sounds and to download as the Arts and Ideas podcast.
You can hear more from Jade in discussions called Modernism around the World and South African writing.

The Essay: New Generation Thinkers 2022

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.

The latest crop of New Generation Thinkers stretch their broadcasting wings.

The latest crop of New Generation Thinkers, the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Council which turns research into radio, stretch their broadcasting wings.

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