We live in a world filled with material wealth, live longer and healthier lives, and yet anxiety, stress, unhappiness, and depression have never been more common. What are the driving forces behind these interlinked global epidemics? In this series, Professor Mark Williams (Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at Oxford University) and Dr Danny Penman discuss the recent scientific advances that have radically altered our understanding of depression and related disorders. Also discussed is the latest treatments and therapies that are offering hope to those suffering from depression. Professor Williams co-developed Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), a treatment for anxiety, stress and depression that is at least as effective as drugs at preventing new episodes of depression. It's now one of the preferred treatments for depression recommended by the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. The same technique, based upon an ancient form of meditation, can also help us cope more effectively with the relentless demands of our increasingly frantic world.

This series of six lectures introduces six plays from the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. Once popular and now little-known, they can tell us a lot about what their first audiences enjoyed, aspired to and worried about - from immigrants in early modern London to the role of women in the household, from what religious changes might mean for attitudes to the dead to fantasies of easy money and social elevation. Each lecture outlines the play so there is no assumption you have already read it, then goes on to try to understand its historical context and its dramatic legacy, drawing parallels with modern film and contemporary culture as well as with Elizabethan material. The lecturer's aim with students in the room and with interested listeners on iTunes U is to broaden our understanding of the theatre Shakespeare wrote for by thinking about some non-Shakespearean drama, and to recreate some of the excitement and dramatic possibilities of the new, popular technology of Renaissance theatre.

Prof. Warner and Prof. Ballaster begin their conversation with Antoine Galland's translation into French from Arabic of the 'Alf Layla wa-Layla' as the first two volumes of 'Les Mille et Une Nuit' in the first decade of eighteenth century. The twelve-volume text that became known in the English-speaking world as 'The Arabian Nights Entertainments' was woven together from manuscript and verbal sources as well as added to with apparently invented tales by Antoine Galland himself. Warner and Ballaster open their discussion by considering whether Galland's tales provide a better window on the French salon culture of the early eighteenth century than Islamic empire medieval or modern. This audio recording is part the Interviews on Great Writers series presented by Oxford University Podcasts.

ePub version of text The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.

Acclaimed author of His Dark Materials Philip Pullman is interviewed by Margaret Kean on his new book, his influences and his method for writing stories. This podcast is part of the Literature, Art and Oxford series from Oxford University.

This series of eight audio lectures delivered by Dr T. J. Mawson at the University of Oxford in Hilary Term 2011, introduces the main philosophical arguments pertaining to the Western monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Each lecture has an associated hand-out (two for the first lecture).

Professor Elleke Boehmer notes the distinct lack of women writers on the Post/Colonial Writing page of the Great Writers website, and explores why this is the case. She draws attention to the phenomenon of double colonization and, taking Scottish/South African author Zoe Wicomb as an example, looks at the marketing and publishing industries to discuss why postcolonial women writers are less well-known than their male counterparts. This audio recording is part the Interviews on Great Writers series presented by Oxford University Podcasts.

Dr Catherine Brown, English Faculty, Oxford, gives a lecture exploring the nature of realism in verbal and visual art. This podcast is part of the Literature, Art and Oxford series from Oxford University.

ePub version of text The life and death of King Richard the Second by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.

ePub version of text The Tragedy of Richard the Third: with the Landing of Earle Richmond, and the Battell at Bosworth Field by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.

ePub version of text The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.

Linda Gates, Professor of Voice at Northwestern University (USA) discusses how Shakespeare's poetry and plays lend themselves to vocal performance by discussing how breath can be used to 'punctuate the thought'. This audio recording is part the Interviews on Great Writers series presented by Oxford University Podcasts.

Staging Shakespeare is series of brief video commentaries on performing and directing Shakespeare including extracts of two plays- 'The Tempest' and 'Two Gentlemen of Verona'. An English teacher also explains how she uses IT resources to engage students.

ePub version of text The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.

ePub version of text The Tempest by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.

ePub version of text The Life of Tymon of Athens by William Shakepeare, 1564-1616.