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Shakespeare's Heroes

What do we mean by a hero and where does our understanding of the ‘heroic’ idiom come from? In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will show how Shakespeare’s idea of the hero was shaped by the classical tradition, going back to the ancient tale of Troy and Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid.

Shakespeare's London and Ancient Rome

Jonathan Bate tells the story of how and why Shakespeare was steeped in the classics, from his earliest plays such as Titus Andronicus and The Comedy of Errors to his dramatisations of the stories of Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra.

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life as a Children's Heart Surgeon

Few people are lucky enough to save lives or change them for the better. Few also experience the horror of losing lives or worsening them. In this lecture I want to share some of the astonishing experiences of a paediatric heart surgeon.

I Won't Have Blood! A Battle Between Belief and Duty?

There is a tension between clinical teams and the families of devout Jehovah’s Witnesses. This lecture explores that tension, and considers how we might perform open-heart surgery without blood.

Affairs of the Heart: An Exploration of the Symbolism of the Heart in Art

A celebration of the heart for St Valentine’s Day. How is it that a simple pump has become a symbol of the highest human emotions of love, truth, conscience and moral courage? How have artists represented this? An interdisciplinary presentation.

Shakespeare's Sonnets and the Use of Personification

'When well-appareled April on the heel / Of limping winter treads'. A calendar month cannot dress, nor can a season walk. This lecture will explore the magic of personification in Shakespeare's poetry.

Sudden Death in the Young: A Terrible Waste

Sudden death in the young is more common than you think... This lecture considers the causes of sudden death, its impact on families, the difficulties of carrying out research, and some of the legal and social obstacles to discovering more.

Shakespeare's Astronomy

Amongst all his astronomical allusions, Shakespeare demonstrates a deep knowledge of the night sky and its movements, including the new Copernican world-view. What can we learn of Elizabethan astronomy and Shakespeare's knowledge of it from the plays?

Seeing Through the Lies: Innovation and the Need for Transparency

Doctors’ careers can be built on publication rates and citations. Medical journals prefer positive results. It is not surprising that scientific fraud occurs, sometimes causing catastrophic damage to innocent patients and others. what can be done?

Van Eyck's The Virgin with the Canon: Visual Disability and Societal Attitudes as Depicted in the Northern Renaissance

Examples of disease as shown in artworks will be examined, from the medical and surgical point of view as well as the historical and artistic ones, particularly visual loss as portrayed by artists from pre-historic times.

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