13 February 2006
Monday 13 February 2006 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Fantasy, horror and confused sexuality – Isabel Hilton enters the realm of the Gothic imagination
Programme Details
Picture this….a young woman, dressed only in a white shift, sprawls unconscious on her bed – one arm outflung.…just below her breasts, pinning her down, squats a glaring, brown, gnomish figure..…and to one side emerging from the darkness a wall-eyed horse...this is the image conjured up by Henry Fuseli in his painting, The Nightmare. It's an image which has come to embody what we mean when we talk about the gothic. Its also one of the first images you’ll come across if you visit Tate Britain’s new show about Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination which opens on Wednesday. In Night Waves this evening Isabel Hilton will be entering this dark world with two specially chosen guides – the art historian, Christopher Frayling, and the novelist, Charles Palliser….what drove the gothic imagination? Why did it flourish? And where do we find it today?
If we can find the gothic in what we see and do now what about the samurai spirit? On Tuesday BBC Two will be screening Andrew Graham-Dixon’s film about samurai and in a couple of weeks time, Christopher Ross will be publishing Mishima’s Sword, a book which explores man’s the values of the samurai caste. They’ll both be talking to Isabel about their fascination with this warrior elite and considering what influence the samurai may still exert on the contemporary Japanese imagination.
There’ll also be a first night review of Peter Stein’s production of Blackbird - David Harrower’s play about the encounter between a man and the woman he abused when she was a teenager. That’s all in Night Waves with Isabel Hilton here on BBC Radio 3 at the usual time of nine thirty.
Presenter: Isabel Hilton
Producer: Zahid Warley
Additional information:
1) Gothic Nightmares – Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination is at Tate Britain in London from Wednesday 15th February until May 1st.
2) I, Samurai presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon will be screened on BBC Two at 2320 on Tuesday 14th February.
3) Mishima’s Sword – Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend by Christopher Ross is published by Fourth Estate on 6th March.
4) Blackbird written by David Harrower and directed by Peter Stein is at the Albery Theatre in London
