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Arts & Ideas

A Feminist Take on Medieval History

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2599 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2018

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How does Chaucer write about rape and consent ? What links Kim Kardashian West & Margery Kempe - an English Christian mystic and mother of 14 children who wrote about her religious visions in the 1420s in what has been called the first autobiography in English. Alicia Spencer-Hall, Elizabeth Robertson and New Generation Thinker Hetta Howes join Shahidha Bari for a conversation about new research and what a feminist take brings to our understanding of the medieval period.

Made with the assistance of the AHRC - the Arts and Humanities Research Council which funds research into the humanities and works with BBC Radio 3 on the New Generation Thinkers scheme to make academic research available to a wider audience.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps

0:21.2

it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream

0:26.1

van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC sounds. This is the BBC.

0:34.3

Hello, I'm Shahid Abari and this is the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast.

0:39.5

In this episode, we're focusing on new academic research, and the producer today told me that

0:43.9

we were looking at medieval studies for this programme, and I have to admit that my heart

0:47.4

slightly sunk, because I vividly remember slogging through the Riverside Chaucer when I was

0:53.4

an undergraduate and I did English.

0:54.9

But then he said that we're doing feminist approaches to medieval studies.

0:58.8

And I really remember that the bright spots for me were Marjorie Kemp, whaling.

1:04.5

Yes.

1:05.4

And the dignified Julian of Norwich.

1:10.5

So I am actually really looking forward to this.

1:12.6

And helping me with the discussion is Heta Hals, Heter Hi.

1:16.1

Hi.

1:16.7

Hi.

1:16.9

You're from City University.

1:18.7

You're a medieval scholar.

1:20.2

And you're going to be the doctor's, doctor who's assistant to my Doctor Who.

1:24.4

What's the medieval equivalent of that?

1:26.2

Perhaps a friar tuck to your Robin Hood. I don't know. And is the rest of the Doctor Who. What's the medieval equivalent of that? Perhaps a friar tuck to your Robin Hood, I don't know.

1:29.6

And is the rest of the Doctor Who team or the Robin Hood's merry women? The posse.

...

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