Cambridge University’s Darwin Correspondence Project is presenting a season of four films that explore the political, social and cultural implications of Darwinian ideas about human nature.
Expert speakers will introduce each film and there will be time for discussion after each screening.
The four films being shown this year are Inherit the Wind, The Elephant Man, Proteus: A Nineteenth Century Vision, and Black Venus (Venus Noire).
Organiser Dr Francis Neary said: “We chose the four films to cover a broad chronology from the early 19th to the early 20th century, and a range of themes, including teaching Darwinism, slavery and race, degeneration in Victorian society, the boundaries between normal and abnormal in the nineteenth-century sideshow, and the tension between science and art. We wanted a good mix between films that were difficult to see on the big screen and old favourites that deserve another airing.
“The most important criteria for selection were films that would make surprising connections to Darwin’s work on human nature, and that contained though-provoking material that would facilitate an interesting discussion at the end of each screening. Finally, all the films offer an account of real events, which can be questioned and discussed in the light recent historical scholarship.
“The idea of film series was conceived to bring some of the themes of Darwin and Human Nature strand of the Darwin Correspondence Project’s research to a wider audience. (http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwin-human-nature).
The series, which runs from October 22-31, has a particular focus on Darwinian ideas about the moral sense, and race, civilisation and progress.
Added Neary: “We hope to raise awareness of the Project in an informal and entertaining way, and to show the relevance of Darwin’s work to contemporary issues in society, such as creationism and naturalism, the status and dignity of humans, and the boundaries between human and animal.”
The series is supported by the Templeton Foundation.
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Image: Cinema seats Credit: Dark Mavis - Flickr Creative Commons
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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