Truth, Lies and Fiction
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss truth, lies and fiction. In 1995 a book appeared which brought its author great acclaim from serious critics, won prizes, stunned its readers and was thought to add significantly and profoundly to the literature of the Holocaust. The book was called Fragments, its author, Binjamin Wilkomirski. But recently the veracity of the account told in Fragments has been questioned by Elena Lappin, the author of an investigative essay published in the literary magazine Granta. When it was exposed as a fiction - or should it be called a lie? - it triggered many arguments, one of which is that of the value of authenticity and the supremacy of originality in the culture of the late twentieth century. Does it really matter if literature isn’t entirely truthful? And is the idea of authenticity in writing a recent invention?
Guests
-
Elena Lappin No other episodes
Author of an investigative essay published in Granta called 'Truth and Lies' - Dr Nick Groom
2 episodes
Lecturer in English, University of Exeter
Related episodes
-
History’s relevance in the 20th century
3 Dec, 1998 900 History -
Truth
18 Dec, 2014 100 Philosophy -
Writing and Political Oppression
8 Apr, 1999 320 Political science -
Hitler in History
5 Oct, 2000 940 History of Europe -
Biography
22 Jun, 2000 920 Biography and genealogy -
The Novel
11 Nov, 1999 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
Iris Murdoch
21 Oct, 2021 100 Philosophy -
Hannah Arendt
25 Jun, 2020 320 Political science -
Tolstoy
25 Apr, 2002 890 Other literatures -
Science’s Revelations
29 Oct, 1998 500 Science -
Walter Benjamin
10 Feb, 2022 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
Literary Modernism
26 Apr, 2001 820 English and Old English literatures -
Kafka’s The Trial
27 Nov, 2014 830 German and related literatures -
Authenticity
19 Nov, 2020 100 Philosophy -
Nihilism
16 Nov, 2000 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
Auden
19 Dec, 2019 820 English and Old English literatures -
Masculinity in Literature
20 Jan, 2000 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
Four Quartets
22 Dec, 2016 820 English and Old English literatures -
Literature
5 Jan, 2012 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
Jorge Luis Borges
4 Jan, 2007 860 Spanish, Portuguese, Galician literatures
Programme ID: p00545lr
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00545lr
Auto-category: 809.93358 (Holocaust literature)