Night Waves - Shakespeare

James Shapiro and Stanley Wells are possibly the two dominant voices in contemporary Shakespeare criticism. Shapiro sprang to public attention after the publication his prize-winning study A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, and this month sees the publication of his latest work, Contested Will, which examines the identity of the man who wrote the plays not just from the evidence of Shakespeare's time, but through the many interpretations of the texts by generations of writers and thinkers. Stanley Wells, Emeritus Professor of the Shakespeare Institute and general editor of The Oxford Shakespeare for 30 years. His latest book is a radical and often highly explicit exploration of the many references, uses, meanings and interpretations of sex and sexuality in the Shakespeare's works. In a rare opportunity to hear these two leading voices of Shakespeare studies together, presenter Matthew Sweet examines with them the mind of the man who wrote the plays, asking to what extent they can be taken as autobiographcal confession, historical record, political analysis or religious commentary. And he also talks to them about their passion for Shakespeare's work and the focus of contemporary Shakespeare scholarship.