Our new season promises lot of changes. First of all, we will be broadcasting on YouTube as well as on podcast (ACast, Spotify). The visual version will show verses, quotes and other images to enhance the understanding of what we say.
Season 3 delves into the Sonnets commonly attributed to William Shakespeare, with a particular emphasis on the first seventeen (or Procreation Sonnets as they are known). This Season will also see the appearance of some guests to challenge our resident experts, Dr Hodges and Ms Paxton.
Episode 1: Delving into the Sonnets
In this first episode of Season 3, we delve into the first 17 sonnets traditionally attributed to Shakespeare. Why were they written and for whom, and who might have written them?
Episode 2: Epigrams and More
In the second episode of Season 3, we continue to examine the first 17 sonnets traditionally attributed to Shakespeare. Why were they written and for whom, and who might have written them? We look to Sir John Harrington’s Epigrams and Florio’s “Fruits” for clues.
Episode 3: The Influence of Ovid?
Episode 3 of Season 3 compares the first 17 sonnets traditionally attributed to Shakespeare to the poems of Hero and Leander and Venus and Adonis. Are there similarities? Can we place them chronologically? What about the influence of the Roman poet, Ovid?
Episode 4: Enter Shakespeare
Episode 4 of Season 3 looks at Shakespeare himself as the author of the Procreation Sonnets. This time, we have a special guest – Dr Rachel Wifall of St Peter’s University in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Episode 5: Letters or Imagination?
Episode 5 of Season 3 sees Dr Rachel Wifall, Professor of English at St Peter’s University join the team again to discuss if the procreation sonnets were a series of correspondence, artistic exercises to imaginary persons, or something else.
Episode 6: And then there were five…
Episode 6 of Season 3 features a new panellist, Dr Joseph Khoury, Professor of English at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Canada.
Episode 7: Rivals?
Episode 7 begins a new conversation between Dr Joseph Khoury, Professor of English at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Canada and Dr Peter Hodges. The key question: who is the Rival Poet?
Episode 8: Evidence of Rivalry
Having established a method of whittling down the key suspects for the title of the Rival Poet, will Peter’s method fall under the intense grilling of Joseph’s?
Episode 9: Why Be Rivals?
Dr Hodges attempts to throw in more statements, or ‘witness testimonies’ in his words, hidden within the sonnets to determine why there was a rivalry in the first place. Will Dr Khoury unravel all his work?