Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
- James Joyce, Ulysses
While these words are themselves one of the most famous and studied moments in literature they also herald one of the greatest works of fiction. Few works are comparable to James Joyce’s Ulysses, both in terms of its innovation and its legacy. Yet at its most base root this celebrated tale of Leopold Bloom’s journey through the streets of Dublin is just a re-imagining of one of the world’s oldest known stories; Homer’s Odyssey.
Joyce is not alone in his retelling of ancient tales and throughout history authors have, unwittingly or deliberately, retold and re-imagined the stories that went before them. In fact many people have argued that there are only a few actual stories and that authors are simply retelling these tales in different ways. Far from being a fierce condemnation these criticisms make it clear that an author’s greatness is measured by their capacity as a storyteller and their ability to innovatively re-imagine tales we have heard time and time again.
Canons of literature like The Divine Comedy, Aesop’s Fables, or the works of William Shakespeare have provided the largest well-spring of tales for re-telling. Yet other, more modern, works have also proved their worth as literary blueprints. Today authors re-imagine the novels and fictions of the 19th and 20th centuries as much as they retell millennia old tales. But what is the difference between re-imagining a story and taking inspiration from something that has gone before?
In 2014 Dr Eve Patten of Trinity College Dublin will launch a new course which will look at the active and deliberate re-writing of novels and fictions to create new works of literature. Listen back as ‘Talking Books’ is joined by Dr Patten and she and Susan talk about this course and delve into some of the seminal works that have been re-imagined or that are themselves re-imaginings of older tales. Join us as we find out why authors use established fictions as the blueprints for their works. What these re-imaginings can add to a story. And why some characters and tales lend themselves so perfectly to being resurrected by authors centuries apart.
Religion has provided some of the greatest fodder for authors’ imaginations throughout history and their accounts and stories have been retold countless times and in countless forms. In his book, An Atheist’s History of Belief: Understanding Our Most Extraordinary Invention, Matthew Kneale looks, not at the tales and parables told by religions around the world, but at the story of these religions themselves.
Telling the story of religions and how the rise and develop from an atheist’s point of view Matthew Kneale’s book has divided opinion. Listen back as Susan finds out why Matthew decided to depart on this quest and what he learned writing the book. Why does Matthew call belief Our Most Ordinary Invention? And what does An Atheist’s History of Belief tell us about human nature, psychology, and our varied history of religious belief?
Continuing the theme of human psychology and philosophical speculation ‘Talking Books’ speaks with Dr Michelle Farrell about The Prohibition of Torture in Exceptional Circumstances. With the success last year of Zero Dark Thirty and the ongoing struggle to close Guantanamo Bay, torture and the use of torture is an issue to the fore of public conscience. In this great work Dr Michelle Farrell asks, can torture ever be justified by exceptional circumstances?
Listen back to ‘Talking Books’ as Susan and Michelle look through human history at when and how torture has been used and legitimised in the past. With the shadow of terrorism and the supposed threat of terrorist attack still looming large in the public psyche Dr Farrell talks to us about ‘legitimate torture’ in the 21st century. How and why has torture been legitimised? And do the arguments used to find exception to the UN Convention Against Torture stand up to scrutiny?
