Eighteenth-Century Research Group blogs and podcasts

This talk critiques the contrasting positions of three major writers (Descartes, Shaftesbury, and Diderot) concerning what divides animals from humans, and living creatures from elaborate machines. The lecture and discussion is given by Dr James Fowler (University of Kent) and chaired by Ann Lewis (Birkbeck).

A roundtable exploring one of Diderot's best known and most enigmatic texts, 'Le Neveu de Rameau' as it was edited, translated and adapted in new media and for new audiences.

A discussion of Mike Leigh's film, 'Mr Turner' (2014). A panel including Jacqueline Riding, Sarah McBryde and Tim Wright discuss the film and its representation of the great artist.

Clouds have a significant place in the literary tradition. Richard Hamblyn discusses his two favourite quotations about the mutable nature of clouds, from Aristophanes and Joni Mitchell.

Dr Vladimir Jankovic discusses the aesthetic appreciation of clouds, based on Aristotle's four causes of understanding, and the difficulty of the 'final' cause in the case of natural phenomena - what is their purpose?

Professor Esther Leslie discusses the theory of clouds, and clouds of theory - from one to the other. The implications of clouds are considered as mappable forms, and embody the demands and possibilities of complexity.

Prospective BA Creative Writing student Rebecca Royle records her thoughts on the Clouds: Objects, Metaphor, Phenomena event run by the Eighteenth-Century Research Group.

Dr Ann Lewis discusses the relationship between text and image in different series of illustrations of Marivaux's 'La Vie de Marianne' and the 1995 film adaptation.

Dr Silke Arnold de Simine discusses Murnau's film 'Nosferatu' to see how the motif of the vampire was created and has shifted across different media platforms.

Dr Richard Taws discusses Éric Rohmer's 2001 film 'L'Anglaise et le Duc', Grace Elliott's relationship with Duke of Orléans, and the tensions between royalism and revolution.

Helen Cowie explores the collection, study and exhibition of exotic animals, discussing how contemporaries conceptualised rare animals, where they encountered them and what value they attached to specimens in zoological gardens and touring menageries.

Frances Carey, Curator at the British Museum, discusses one of the museum's most curious items, a wooden hand acquired by explorer James Cook on his travels through the Pacific.

Kim Sloan, Curator at the British Museum, discusses the refurbishment of the Enlightenment Gallery, celebrating the museum's 250th anniversary.

Professor Simon During discusses his latest research, ‘Lost Objects: Magic and Mystery in the late English Enlightenment’.

Luisa Calé reflects on this event, which explored the cultural work of 'marginalia' in Copy D of William Blake's 'Europe: A Prophecy' (1794).

Susan Matthews explores the cultural work of 'marginalia' in Copy D of William Blake's 'Europe: A Prophecy' (1794) and how they affect modern interpretation and re-publication of this work today.