Main content

Walter Benjamin, the Soviet Superwoman, Munch

Anne McElvoy evaluates the short fiction of German writer Walter Benjamin. Plus a discussion about the propaganda creation of a post-revolutionary Soviet 'superwoman' in 1917.

Anne McElvoy evaluates the first major English edition of short fiction by the great German critic and essayist, Walter Benjamin with the translator and scholar Esther Leslie and the critic, Kevin Jackson.
Also in the programme a guide to the Soviet Superwoman courtesy of curator Elena Sudokova and Dolya Gavanski -- the moving forces behind the GRAD gallery show devoted to women in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991.

And as Peter Watkins' critically acclaimed film based on the life of Edvard Munch is re-released New Generation Thinker Leah Broad considers the Norwegian painter's achievement and the art of biography.

Fay Bound Alberti's cultural history of the body completes the programme - why do we talk of the heart as the seat of our emotions and where would you expect to find someone's "mind" ?

This Mortal Coil by Fay Bound Alberti is published by Oxford University Press.

The Storyteller by Walter Benjamin is published by Verso on 23rd June.

Superwoman: Work, Build and Don't Whine is on at GRAD in Little Portland Street in London from 18 June -17 September

Edvard Munch - a 1974 biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, written and directed by Peter Watkins, has been re-released on DVD by Eureka.

Leah Broad's research at the University of Oxford is focused on Nordic modernism. She is editor of The Oxford Culture Review and winner of the Observer/Anthony Burgess prize for the best arts journalism essay in 2015 for her reappraisal of the Finnish composer Sibelius.

The New Generation Thinkers prize is an initiative launched by Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to find the brightest minds from across the UK who have the potential to transform their research into engaging broadcast programmes. You can hear more about the research topics of all 10 2016 New Generation Thinkers on our website on a programme broadcast on May 31st and available as an arts and ideas podcast and find clips where you can hear their newly commissioned written pieces on a range of subjects.

Producer: Zahid Warley

(Main Image: Unknown Artist, ‘Let’s liberate women from kitchen slavery to work in socialist industry. Let’s organise our canteens’ c.1927 Offset colour print ©The City Museum, Saint Petersburg)

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Thu 23 Jun 2016 22:00

Main Image

Unknown Artist, ‘Let’s liberate women from kitchen slavery to work in socialist industry. Let’s organise our canteens’ c.1927 Offset colour print ©The City Museum, Saint Petersburg

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Anne McElvoy
Interviewed Guest Leah Broad
Producer Zahid Warley

Broadcast

  • Thu 23 Jun 2016 22:00

Featured in...

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life