2. So Shall You Be
Kirsty Logan tells us tales of the revenant, a malevolent ghost made of flesh and bone that haunted medieval England.
Illustration by Seonaid Mackay
'There once was a man who died. He was flesh and bone when he went into the ground. And flesh and bone when he came back out of it.'
Kirsty Logan delves into tales of the revenant, a terrifying, malevolent ghost that haunted medieval England, and was anything but spectral.
She traces the origins of revenant stories to a violent entity that terrified even the fiercest of Viking warriors, discovers how the way you lived your life would determine if you would be accepted into heaven, or have the very earth would spit you out, and how the development of purgatory in Christian belief changed how people thought of ghosts forever.
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Susan Owens - How the Ghost Became Transparent
Duration: 17:52
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Susan Owens - A Naked Royal Ghost
Duration: 01:40
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The Draugr
Duration: 02:50
Susan Owens - How the Ghost Became Transparent
Photo Credit: Michael Waller-Bridge
Our Extra Interview today is
Susan is an art historian and curator. She studied English at Somerville College, Oxford and European art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, and gained her PhD from the University of London, and she was Formerly Curator of Paintings at the V&A.
She has authored several books in art history, including 鈥楾he Ghost: A Cultural History (Tate Publishing), 鈥楥hristina Rossetti: Poetry in Art,鈥� co-edited with Nicholas Tromans (Yale University Press), and most recently 鈥楽pirit of Place: Artists, Writers and the British Landscape鈥�, published by Thames & Hudson in August 2020.聽
Susan explains how our image of ghosts has changed over the centuries, from full bodied terrors, to naked royals, to shadows on a lens. But that despite there being many fashions for ghosts, our desire for them to exist, has never waned.
Broadcasts
- Tue 20 Oct 2020 13:45主播大秀 Radio 4
- Fri 17 Sep 2021 14:45主播大秀 Radio 4