Greece on Air
Engagements with Ancient Greece on BBC Radio, 1920s-1960s
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:29th Oct '15
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Greece on Air offers the first substantial discussion of the fascinating history of creative and public engagements with ancient Greek literature, history, and thought via the BBC Radio, from the birth of domestic broadcasting in the 1920s up to the 1960s. The astonishing range of programmes broadcast in this period includes some of the most interesting, creative, and political engagements with ideas from and about ancient Greece in twentieth-century Britain. From talks to schools and adult education groups, creative re-imaginings of ancient historical texts written and broadcast as Second World War propaganda, and scores of performances of Greek tragedy, comedy, and their modern adaptations, Wrigley draws on the vast amount of evidence that exists in the written archives (both for production processes and also listeners' responses) to develop a full understanding of the role of the radio medium in public engagements with ancient Greece in twentieth-century Britain.
Greece on Air extensively documents just how formidable Greece's presence on British radio used to be ... a compelling account of the diversity in these decades of public participation in ancient Greece's radio life -- and beyond. * Johanna Hanink, Times Literary Supplement *
Greece on Air excels in its ability to guide readers through, and weave a compelling story from, the maddeningly complex and frustratingly lacunose; it does great service in opening up a previously all-but-unexplored field of reception of the ancient world in modern mass culture ... Wrigley writes elegantly and with unfailing clarity, delivering a deservedly upbeat story. * Gideon Nisbet, Journal of Radio & Audio Media *
Amanda Wrigley's Greece on Air fills a gap in the historical field of Classics with a book which covers almost the entirety of BBC Radio's engagement with Ancient Greece and Rome in the twentieth century. She has provided an extremely thorough overview for her readers ... she has created a situation which, as well as informing the general populace in and of itself, nudges them towards discovering and learning new information for themselves. * Margaret Banford, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *
a genuinely groundbreaking study, achieving the not small task of opening up a new realm of research. * Henry Stead, Classical Review *
In Greece on Air, Wrigley offers us the most comprehensive treatment to date of the ways in which radio drama has responded to, transmitted, and transformed the legacy of the classical world ... a fascinating and worthwhile monograph * Thomas Keith, Classical Journal Online *
ISBN: 9780199644780
Dimensions: 223mm x 150mm x 26mm
Weight: 544g
352 pages