南京大学人文社会科学高级研究院

学术前沿讲座第319期

南京大学-伯明翰大学-译林出版社莎士比亚（中国）中心 系列学术讲座第13讲

题目：Was Shakespeare a Cyborg?: Automata, Alchemy and Artificial Life

讲座人： 英国伯明翰大学莎士比亚研究院

Dr. Chris Laoutaris  

主持人：陈星 博士  南京大学外国语学院英语系

时间：2018年6月11日（周一）下午14:00-15:30

地点：仙林校区邵逸夫楼（国际学院）C308高研院报告厅

备注：英语演讲

Abstract

The Renaissance was a period of great scientific and technological advancement. But did Shakespeare and his contemporaries believe in the possibility of creating a being which we today might term ‘cybernetic’? This lecture will explore the ways in which the drive towards the manufacture of automata and artificial life, fuelled by the dark arts of alchemy, was dramatized in the playwright’s work. There has never been a better time to look back at our modern culture’s cybernetic beginnings and pose the question: Was Shakespeare a Cyborg?

Profile

Dr Chris Laoutaris is a researcher at The Shakespeare Institute in Shakespeare’s birthplace of Stratford-Upon-Avon. His most recent book, Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle that Gave Birth to the Globe (Penguin), was shortlisted for the Tony Lothian Prize for Biography, was Observer Book of the Year, Telegraph Book of the Year, and one of the New York Post’s ‘Must-Read Books’. He recently signed a two-book deal with HarperCollins, whose William Collins imprint secured the rights in competition with several other major commercial publishers.