The St. Clare's Seminar Series provides an opportunity for students to explore a stimulating range of issues and ideas linked together by a common theme. The theme this term is 'Ten Books that Changed the World'.

All are welcome to attend!

Ten Books that Changed the World

According to John Ruskin, there are two kinds of books: ‘the books of the hours, and the books of all time’ (Sesame and Lilies, 1865). What distinguishes a book of all time from a book of its own time? Is the canonical status of a classic text guaranteed to last? What books have had the greatest impact on human culture and history, and why? This interdisciplinary series will explore these questions from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives. Throughout the series, the focus will be on secular rather than sacred texts. Nine influential books will be discussed by critics, historians, philosophers and social scientists; the tenth book will be chosen at an open forum where students can nominate and champion their own ‘book of all time’.

Wednesday 21 January
James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922)
Dr Keith Hopper, Kellogg College, Oxford

Wednesday 28 January
Plato’s The Republic (c.380 BCE)
David Chaplin, St. Clare’s College, Oxford

Wednesday 4 February
Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949)
Kate Kirkpatrick, St. Cross College, Oxford

Wednesday 11 February
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Dr Edward Clarke, St. Catherine’s College, Oxford

Wednesday 25 February
Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
Dr Anna Scarnà, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford

Wednesday 4 March
Magna Carta (1215)
Paul Sinclair, St. Clare’s College, Oxford

Wednesday 11 March
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Anna Castriota, St. Clare’s College, Oxford

Wednesday 18 March
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962)
Karen Heath, St. Anne’s College, Oxford

Wednesday 25 March
Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929)
Victoria Staveley, St. Clare’s College, Oxford

Wednesday 15 April
Open Forum
Books Chosen by St Clare’s Students

All talks will be held in the Bardwell Road Campus on Wednesday afternoons at 4.45pm
(tea and coffee will be served from 4.30pm)

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