26 October 2005
Wednesday 26 October 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Margaret Atwood, AS Byatt, Karen Armstrong and Nii Parkes join Philip Dodd to discuss the history of myth making
Programme details
On Night Waves undercurrents Philip Dodd examines the current state of myth. Writers Margaret Atwood , Karen Armstrong , A. S. Byatt and Nii Parkes explore how for each of them, in different ways, myths are a form which take us not out of the world but more intensely into it.
As a major new series of publications is launched which sees writers from across the world retelling some of our most enduring stories, Night Waves discusses the ways in which myth is connected to the modern novel, religion and David Beckham. But as we hear extracts from Margaret Atwood's retelling of part of the Odyssey, read by Fiona Shaw, Philip asks whether in the scientific age they're not much more than tools for writers.
Additional details:
Launch titles in the Myths series are
A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong
The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Margaret Atwood
Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Hercules by Jeanette Winterson
