Parallel Lines Readings from science and literature at the South Bank
Centre*, 14 January to 11 March
The South Bank Centre is running a series of talks on the relationship
between science and literature in which writers. poets and scientists discuss
how scientific ideas over the past two centuries have influenced literature
and social change.
The first talk, 鈥楩rankenstein鈥�, was given by Marilyn Butler, Regius
Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge, and illustrated
with readings by Jo Shapcott who also read her own poems. In exploring the
鈥榖est known text of English romanticism鈥�, Mary Shelley鈥檚 ghost-story-turned-romantic-novel,
Butler dismissed the modern icon of Frankenstein as the archetypal mad scientist
who is punished for playing God. Instead she proposed a more enlightened
interpretation of the story鈥檚 significance as an allegory for the radical
social and scientific theories of the late 18th century. (Shelley wrote
the ghost story in 1816.)
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Butler pointed out 鈥� to a full house 鈥� that the Shelleys were familiar
with scientific ideas of the day, in particular, theories of the origin
of life, heredity and sexual selection, and the role of Man as a social
and moral animal. The volumes of Franken-stein are based on these themes.
In the series of seven talks, Maggie Gee and Steven Copley have talked
about writers and the effects of agriculture and industry on the landscape
in 鈥楨nvironment鈥�, and Stephen Clucas and Abdul Malik discussed the role
of alchemy, magic and early science in literature. Still to come are: 鈥楤ody
and Mind鈥�, 11 February, in which medical historian Roy Porter and poet UA
Fanthorpe explore medicine and literature; 鈥楾ruth, Proof and Perception鈥�,
18 February, a forum led by writer Karen Armstrong and mathematician Ian
Stewart to compare scientific and literary knowledge; 鈥楾ime and Space鈥�,
3 March, Sarah Lefanu and Michele Roberts look at women writers and science
fiction; and 鈥楳aking Waves鈥�, 11 March, Gillian Beer and Peter Didsbury explore
how modern physics has influenced writing.
*Tickets are available at 拢2.50 from the Box Office, The Royal
Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, London SE1 8XX, telephone 071 928 8800.
