Monday 3 January 2011

W. H. Auden - The Addictions of Sin

There is an excellent documentary on W. H. Auden, made by the BBC in 2004, called The Addictions of Sin: Auden in His Own Words. You can watch the whole thing on youtube - here is a link to the first part. I'd recommend it as an good way of revising for the final exam. Watching it myself I discovered that Auden's father, like my own great grandfather, fought at Gallipoli.

Sticking with youtube, you might also find this talk about Auden helpful. I haven't listened to it all myself yet, but the first part, which discusses 'Spain', Orwell's criticisms of it, and Auden's revisions, I think you will find very useful. It might even persuade those of you who weren't convinced by the poem to take another look! The programme takes some time to get going (you can probably ignore the first five minutes!) but even if you only listen to the first parts, you'll get a lot of useful information. At 7.30 there is also a good use of the expression 'young Turks'!

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