Abstract: This universal movement applies to biology and geology (for example in landscapes which are in transformation) as well as to anthropology, which recognizes the ability of human beings to change their identity. Such flexibility can be seen as an exciting manifestation of freedom, of energy, and of a creation capable of constant renewal. But it can also inspire fear and provoke resistance. Witchcraft, which believes in all kinds of transformations caused by the sheer plasticity of the devil, of demons and werewolves, is brutally repressed or denied. We have a similar situation in the fascination, both attractive and repellent, that the hermaphrodites exert, as well as in the interest shown in cases of changes of sex and doubtful sexuality.
Bio: Now Professor Emeritus, Michel Jeanneret was for many years Professor of French Literature at the University of Geneva, head of the French Department and Vice-dean of the Faculty of Letters. At the beginning of his career, he was a Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, in Cambridge. His wife, Professor Marian Hobson, CBE, FBA, lives and works there and he spends a substantial amount of his time in England.
Apart from being a Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University for five years, he has held posts as Visiting Professor in Harvard, Princeton, Seattle, Irvine, as well as the College de France, Paris-Sorbonne, and the Universities of Beijing and Kyoto. He serves as an expert for different Research agencies in France. He was awarded major prizes by the Academie française, the Academie de Versailles and by the Accademia dei Lincei (Rome). He is a Fellow of the British Academy, of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and of Academia Europaea. He is now co-chair of a big research project, seconded by a large digitization program, on an exceptional collection of World Literature kept in Geneva at the Martin Bodmer Foundation. His personal work is still focused for the most part on Renaissance and XVIIth century literature and intellectual history.
Schedule of Events
Monday, March 5, 2018 at 4:15 tea, 4:30 lecture: Lecture (Emmanuel College, Room 119): Metamorphic Bodies in the Renaissance: Transforming Shapes
Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at 4:15 tea, 4:30 lecture: Lecture (Emmanuel College, Room 119): Metamorphic Bodies in the Renaissance: Identity Changes
