Listening in - by Allan Hepburn (Hardcover)

About the Book

Brings together a substantial number of Elizabeth Bowen's ungathered and unknown radio broadcasts, interviews and public lectures.

Book Synopsis

The novelist Elizabeth Bowen believed that media was a personal and social force. From the 1940s to the 1960s, she took an active role in the media and radio in particular by writing essays for radio broadcast, improvising interviews on the air and giving public lectures. Despite her pronounced stammer and her complaints that reading her own work gave her lockjaw, she was a spellbinding talker. Bowen became known as a public intellectual capable of talking on numerous subjects with wit and general insight. Invited to university campuses in the UK and US, she delivered important lectures on language, the 'fear of pleasure', character in fiction, the idea of American homes and other topics. Her first efforts for radio were adaptations of her own short stories and dramatizations of literary subjects. She quickly turned to commentary on culture, such as the beginning of the BBC Third Programme and the atmosphere in postwar Czechoslovakia. She documented her love of cinema in the 1930s and the making of Lawrence of Arabia in the 1960s, and broadcast on Queen Elizabeth II, Frances Burney and Jane Austen. During her lifetime, Bowen published few of her broadcasts. Listening In brings together a substantial number of her ungathered and unknown works for the first time. Key Featureso The third volume from Edinburgh University Press that brings Bowen's previously ungathered and unknown works to the reading publico Advances scholarly knowledge about radio in modernism and makes Bowen's voice known within modernist media studieso Helps to define the public role of the writer and women's roles in the postwar yearso An exciting new source for students of adaptation, both in Bowen's adaptations of her own work for radio and her broadcasts about Jane Austen and Frances Burney.

From the Back Cover

Listening In Broadcasts, Speeches, and Interviews by Elizabeth Bowen Edited by Allan Hepburn From the 1940s until the 1960s, Elizabeth Bowen wrote essays for radio broadcast, improvised interviews on the air, and gave public lectures. These public appearances were a trial for her because she had a pronounced stammer. She thought her recorded voice sounded alien, like "the voice of a stranger." She complained that reading her own work on the air gave her lockjaw. Nevertheless, she was a spellbinding talker, as her many friends commented. Invited to university campuses in the US and the UK, she delivered important speeches on language, "the fear of pleasure," character in fiction, the idea of American homes, and other topics. Inveterately curious, Bowen wrote about media as a personal and social force. Without fuss or pretension, she documents her love of cinema in the 1930s and the making of Lawrence of Arabia in the 1960s. Her first efforts for radio were adaptations of her own short stories and dramatizations of literary subjects. She quickly turned to commentary on culture, such as the beginning of the BBC Third Programme and the atmosphere in postwar Czechoslovakia. In this regard, the radio and the speech shape Bowen's persona as a public intellectual capable of talking on numerous subjects with wit and general insight. During her lifetime, Bowen published a few of her broadcasts in collections of non-fiction. Listening In brings together a substantial number of her ungathered and unknown works for the first time. Allan Hepburn is Associate Professor of English at McGill University in Montreal. He has also edited The Bazaar and Other Stories by Elizabeth Bowen and People, Places, Things: Essays by Elizabeth Bowen, both published by Edinburgh University Press.

About the Author

Allan Hepburn is Associate Professor of English at McGill University in Montreal. He has also edited The Bazaar and Other Stories by Elizabeth Bowen and People, Places, Things: Essays by Elizabeth Bowen, both published by Edinburgh University Press.