Lines of Work: Theatre Critic Susannah Clapp on Oscar Wilde
Theatre critic Susannah Clapp exchanges views with Oscar Wilde and his essays on criticism
The Essay · BBC Radio 3
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Show Notes
Prominent people in a particular line of work read and reflect on the writings of an illustrious forebear of the same trade. The essays are partly about ideas and how they change, but also about the practice and the human experience of being a certain kind of thing; be it a teacher, a soldier a critic or a journalist.
Theatre critic Susannah Clapp has a passionate exchange of views with Oscar Wilde through his essays on criticism. Many of Wilde's pungent epithets and observations â€" his 'silken arrows' as Susannah describes them - still have the power to thrill, inform and entertain. But Susannah finds Wilde was on the wrong side of anonymity arguments and struggles to make sense of the internet age. Susannah ends telling her illustrious forebear of her fears for Wildean criticism in the age of mere opinion.
Producer: James Cook.