Rhodri Lewis: Shakespearean Tragedy

I was delighted to talk to Rhodri Lewis, author of Shakespeare’s Tragic Art. We discussed Shakespeare’s most under appreciated plays, the best films, how to teach Shakespeare, humanism, personae, Frank Kermode, the future of the humanities, being supervised by John Carey, A.C. Bradley, what we have learned about Francis Bacon, and more. There’s a transcript below and you can also watch the whole conversation on YouTube if you wish. We also covered Rhodri’s love of Pevsner architectural guides. Timestamps 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:21 Shakespeare's best and worst plays 00:03:14 Performing Shakespeare 00:07:33 Pragmatism 00:09:13 Early experiences with Shakespeare 00:13:52 Teaching Shakespeare 00:17:08 Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet 00:19:38 Which five critical works? 00:23:37 Francis Bacon 00:31:31 What have we learned about Shakespeare? 00:34:32 Too much Shakespeare? 00:41:57 Tragedy 00:49:04 Humanism 00:54:00 Kermode 01:03:59 Quickfire questions This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk