Summary
Corridors: We spend our lives moving through hallways and corridors, yet these channelling spaces do not feature in architectural histories. They are overlooked and undervalued. Laurie talks to Roger Luckhurst, Professor of Modern Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, whose new book charts the origins and meaning of the corridor, from country houses and utopian communities in the eighteenth centuries, through reformist Victorian prisons to the "corridors of power," as well as their often fearful depiction in popular culture. They’re joined by Kate Marshall, Associate Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame and author of a study of the intriguing place of the corridor in modernist literature.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.7 | I'm Laurie Taylor and this is a Radio 4 podcast for thinking aloud. |
| 0:41.4 | Remember The Shining, Remember Barton Fink? What is so very menacing about |
| 0:48.5 | corridors? Find out here. BBC TV news, but today let's ignore the headlines and instead attend to the view behind the news, behind |
| 1:07.0 | Sophie Rayworth, those vast open spaces, look at those huge pillars, those spiraling staircases, the soaring red and orange |
| 1:14.9 | lift shafts, the ubiquitous, ubiquitous glass. As Jonathan Glancy observed in his review of the |
| 1:21.7 | new Broadcasting House, this cavernous, boldly modern space seems more |
| 1:25.8 | like a submarine dock. The sort of place you might expect a James Bond shootout to take place, |
| 1:31.6 | rather than for Hugh Edwards to calmly read the news. |
| 1:35.0 | But when I was taken on an obligatory tour of the new broadcasting house a couple of years ago, |
| 1:41.0 | an elderly lady in my group nervously observed the buildings seem to lack only one architectural feature. |
| 1:47.4 | And what's that? asked our guide. |
| 1:49.8 | Well, well, she said looking around her at the agarophobic landscape, |
| 1:54.0 | there's nowhere to hide, you see. There are no corners, are there tucked away places? |
| 1:59.0 | No, she paused and took a final look around. No corridors. |
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