Europe: The Art of Austerity
Michael Goldfarb talks to Anne Enright and Justin Cartwright about how 1930s artists, writers and film-makers responded to the Great Depression.
Michael Goldfarb looks back to the Europe of the 1930s and asks how artists, writers and film-makers responded to the poverty, mass unemployment and poltical instability of the Great Depression.
Through the work of Bertolt Brecht, George Orwell, Jean Renoir and others, Michael charts the devastating impact of the slump as economic crisis impoverished the continent, engulfing both highly-industrialised nations such as Germany and the more agrarian economies of Greece, Spain and Ireland.
And, as economic faultlines threaten to divide Europe once again, Michael asks whether a new art of austerity is now emerging. The novelists Anne Enright and Justin Cartwright are among Michael's guests as he considers how writers are responding to the latest wave of banking crises, spending cuts and popular protest.
Producer: Julia Johnson.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Broadcasts
- Sun 12 Jun 2011 21:40±«Óãtv Radio 3
- Sun 29 Apr 2012 19:45±«Óãtv Radio 3
What was really wrong with Beethoven?
Georgia Mann and neurosurgeon Henry Marsh explore the puzzle of Beethoven’s poor health.
Classical music in a strongman's Russia – has anything changed since Stalin's day?
What composer Gabriel Prokofiev and I found in Putin's Moscow...
Six Secret Smuggled Books
Six classic works of literature we wouldn't have read if they hadn't been smuggled...
Grid
Seven images inspired by the grid
World Music collector, Sir David Attenborough
The field recordings Attenborough of music performances around the world.