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Date: Sunday, July 22, 2007
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Museum Lecture Hall
Admission: Free; reservations required.
Why do monsters still fascinate us? Despite our rational veneer, are we really any different from the medieval men and women who imagined homicidal dragons, thrashing sea monsters, and seven-headed beasts of the Apocalypse?
Join writer and mythographer Marina Warner for this exploration of monsters, beasts, and metamorphoses across time and space. How do the shape-shifters and transformers of contemporary culture embody age-old human concerns found in art and myth? How are we coping with the potential of new technologies to change our bodies and identities? And how are contemporary artists engaging with the rich imaginative legacy of the Middle Ages as they explore issues such as genetic engineering, body modification, and reproductive technologies?
Warner, described as "a distinguished biographer of myths and archaeologist of ideas" (Guardian) and "mistress of the uncanny and the supernatural as they interweave with European culture" (Financial Times) draws on her enormous erudition, which takes in everything from classical literature to online gaming, to bring the themes of the current manuscripts exhibition Medieval Beasts to the art, writing, and movies of today.
About Marina Warner
Marina Warner is a prize-winning writer of fiction, criticism, and history and professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. Her writing includes novels and short stories as well as studies of female myths and symbols. Her most recent book, Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media, explores ideas of spirit and soul since the Enlightenment, uncovering a host of spirit forms that are still actively present in contemporary culture. "No other writer has Warner's flair for moving so elegantly between myth, fiction, and history," writes Laurence Coupe in his book on Warner.
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How to Get Here
The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles, California, approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. See Hours, Directions, Parking for maps and driving directions.
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