Great Writers Inspire
By Oxford University
To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to podcasts.
Description
PLEASE NOTE: The 'Great Writers Inspire' project has its own website which features much more extensive, diverse and updated content. Please visit https://writersinspires.org From Dickens to Shakespeare, from Chaucer to Kipling and from Austen to Blake, this significant collection contains inspirational short talks freely available to the public and the education community worldwide. This series is aimed primarily at first year undergraduates but will be of interest to school students preparing for university and anyone who would like to know more about the world's great writers. The talks were produced as part of the Great Writers Inspire Project which makes a significant body of material freely available on the subject of great works of literature and their authors. Visit https://writersinspire.org/ to see how great writers can inspire you.
Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | CleanVideoWhat is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 3 | Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, draws on her experience as a trustee of the Booker Prize and as a judge for many other literary prizes to offer a response to the question, 'What is a Classic?'. | 7/19/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
2 | CleanVideoWhat is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 2 | Judith Luna, the Senior Commissioning Editor at Oxford World's Classics, draws on her practical involvement in re-launching the Oxford World's Classics series in 2008 to give a publisher's take on the question, 'What is a Classic?'. | 7/19/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
3 | CleanVideoWhat is a Classic? English Graduate Conference 2012 Panel Debate, Talk 1 | Dr Ankhi Mukherjee, Wadham college, Oxford, speaks to the question 'What is a Classic?' by examining the residual influence of the Eurocentric literary canon in the age of world literature and emergent formations of canons and classics. | 7/19/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
4 | CleanVideoJane Austen's Manuscripts Explored | Professor Kathyrn Sutherland from the University of Oxford talks around the manuscripts of Jane Austen, what we can learn from them about her family life but also her writing style and techniques. | 6/8/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
5 | CleanVideoThe Watsons: Jane Austen Practising | Professor Kathryn Sutherland from the University of Oxford talks about some of Jane Austen's manuscripts from the novel "The Watsons" and what we can learn about her from these. | 6/8/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
6 | CleanVideoGreat Writers Inspire- An Introduction to the Project | A short introductory video to the "Great Writers Inspire project. | 5/23/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
7 | CleanVideoWhat is a Great Writer? An academic panel discusses the question. | In this panel discussion from the Great Writers Inspire Engage Event workshop, Dr Seamus Perry, Dr Margaret Kean, Professor Peter McDonald and Dr Ankhi Mukherjee discuss what we mean when we talk about greatness in writing. | 5/15/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
8 | CleanVideoChaucer | Professor Daniel Wakelin discusses the work of Chaucer and explains how he was one of the first to use everyday spoken English as a literary language in the 14th Century. | 4/17/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
9 | CleanVideoEzra Pound | Dr Rebecca Beasley explains why we should read Pound, someone she considers as the central figure in early 20th Century poetry movements. | 4/10/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
10 | CleanVideoMary Leapor | Dr Jennifer Batt talks about Mary Leapor, an 18th Century kitchen maid who wrote accomplished verses and won accolades from literary society. | 3/27/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
11 | CleanVideoJohn Milton | Dr Anna Beer shares a few short extracts of Milton's poem Lycidas and discusses what they show about Milton's very special qualities as a writer. | 3/15/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
12 | CleanVideoOnly Collect: An Introduction to the World of the Poetic Miscellany | Dr Abigail Williams, Director of the Digital Miscellanies Index, explains how these popular collections of poetry designed to suit contemporary tastes were used in the 18th Century. | 3/9/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
13 | CleanVideoJ.M. Coetzee | Professor Peter McDonald gives a talk on the work of South African Nobel Laureate, J.M. Coetzee. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
14 | CleanVideoOlive Schreiner | Professor Elleke Boehmer gives a talk on Olive Schreiner (1855-1920), the South African novelist, pioneering feminist, and anti-imperialist polemicist. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
15 | CleanVideoKatherine Mansfield and Rhythm Magazine | Dr Faith Binckes explains why modernist short story writer and critic Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is a great writer, highlighting her involvement with the 1911-1913 periodical Rhythm, edited by her second husband John Middleton Murry. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
16 | CleanVideoGeorge Eliot - A Very Large Brain | Dr Catherine Brown gives a talk on George Eliot and her influences. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
17 | CleanVideoWilliam Blake | Dr David Fallon introduces the poetry, painting, and engraving of William Blake, focusing on the imaginative and visionary aspects of Blake's work and his desire to break the publics 'mind-forg'd manacles'. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
18 | CleanVideo18th Century Labouring Class Poetry | Dr Jennifer Batt gives a talk on Stephen Duck, one of the 18th Century labouring-class poets. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
19 | CleanVideoJonathan Swift and the Art of Undressing | Dr Abigail Williams gives a talk on Jonathan Swift and the Art of Undressing. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
20 | CleanVideoBeowulf | Dr Francis Leneghan gives a talk on Beowulf, one of the most important works in Anglo-Saxon literature. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
21 | CleanVideoShakespeare and the Stage | Professor Tiffany Stern gives a talk on William Shakespeare and how his plays were performed in Elizabethan England. | 2/7/2012 | Free | View in iTunes |
21 Items |
Customer Reviews
Mansplainers
I call this the "Mansplainer" podcast. They speak with such confidence and swagger yet what they say is not particularly astute.
Needed More Depth for Me
While I can appreciate the speakers' enthusiasm for why a chosen author "inspired" them, there is a great deal missing in why "I" would be inspired. I was neither inspired to be a better writer nor a better person. This was merely reminiscent of 'bring your favorite person to school' day. This may be exciting for some, so give a few of the talks a try, but if those are not agreeable, do not hold hope that the others will be better.
Listeners also subscribed to

- Free
- Category: Education
- Language: English
- © Oxford University; the media items are released with a Creative Commons licence