To Be Or Not To Be: Shakespeare Unlocked

In this episode we consult an online database, HyperHamlet, run by Professor Regula Hohl Trillini, which lists not just the way Hamlet has been endlessly quoted in the last four centuries, but also unpicks the way Shakespeare was in turn using quotes he'd scooped up from the books he'd read - quite possibly at school. We look at the theory of Professor Joel Altman, who suggested that the practice of rhetoric and the recycling of classical quotations, taught to all Elizabethan grammar school students like Shakespeare, led to Hamlet's philosophical despair. We also look at the value of Hamlet's argumentative, questing mind, and how useful it would be in today's struggle against extremism, radicalisation and fake news.

Producer Andrew Smith wonders why the banned erotic novelist Henry Miller hated Hamlet's speech so much that he wrote an entire book about it - one of the oddest books ever written about Shakespeare. This is a strange and murky tale, involving TS Eliot, James Joyce, DH Lawrence, George Orwell, a confused pub crawl, and a constipated drinking partner called Bill Dyker. The readings of Hamlet's speech are by Emma Fielding If you like the podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or spread the word on social media. Thank you!!l

Welcome to the first episode of the second series of the podcast, in which producer Andrew Smith relates what he learned while making the podcast, as well as recounting the little known stories and unexpected facts which swirl around Hamlet's famous speech. Why is this speech so famous? Why does it generate such contradictory interpretations and such conflicting responses, ranging from those who love it to those who hate it?  In this episode we hear two contrasting stories; that of Jean Moulin, a French Resistance leader during the Second World War, and Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana - two men leading wildly different lives, who had one thing in common, a close and agonised attention to Hamlet's soliloquy The episode contains discussions about suicide.  If you like the podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or spread the word on social media. Thank you!!l The readings of Hamlet's speech are by Emma Fielding

In this episode, American military veteran Stephan Wolfert relates the story of how Hamlet’s soliloquy saved his life when he was at his lowest point. Stephan now runs an organisation which uses Shakespearean monologues to help other veterans cope with their trauma. The episode also features Professor Alisha Ali. The reading is by Emma Fielding You can find out more about DE-CRUIT here: https://www.decruit.org/ [https://www.decruit.org/] This episode features discussion of suicide.

In this episode, we zero in on just one line in Hamlet's famous soliloquy to investigate how Shakespeare packs complex and multiple meanings into just a few words. We hear how neuroscientists have used the same line to investigate the startling effect which Shakespeare has on our brains. If you would like to support the podcast, please do  "like" it - or leave a review! Thank you! This episode features Professor Simon Palfrey of Oxford University and Professor Philip Davis of the Centre for Research Into Reading, Literature and Society, Liverpool University. The reading is by Emma Fielding.