Classical Music and the Subject of Modernity1

This lecture presents the text of the speech about classical music and modernity delivered by the author at the 2007 Aspects of Art Lecture held at the British Academy. It discusses the development of notation and the tonal system and suggests they seldom engaged with western classical music. The lecture also explores the works of Lloyd Webber and the views of Tina Redford about music education and teaching methods.

‘But I, that knew what harbred in that hed’: Sir Thomas Wyatt and his Posthumous ‘Interpreters’

This lecture presents the text of the speech about the work of English poet Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder as a translator and imitator of Petrarch delivered by the author at the 2007 Chatteron Lecture on Poetry held at the British Academy. It explores why Wyatt's critics have recurrently excavated his poetic remains to search for answers about the man who wrote them, and argues that Wyatt's works actually resist and evade confessional nature, especially when compared to the Petrarchan tradition on which he was drawing.

Theopoesis: the Contest of Priest and Poet

This lecture presents the text of the speech about theopoesis and the contest of priest and poet delivered by the author at the 2007 British Academy Special Lecture held at the British Academy. It discusses William Blake's thoughts about the identity of prophet and poet and explains his apodictic pronouncements contained in his All Religions are One. The lecture charts the complexity of the relation between poetry and both natural and revealed religion in the works of Joseph Addison, Blake, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Reconstructing the National Body: Masculinity, Disability and Race in the American Civil War1

This lecture presents the text of the speech about masculinity, disability, and race in the American Civil War delivered by the author at the 2007 Sarah Tryphena Phillips Lecture in American History held at the British Academy. It discusses the centrality of the Civil War to America's national history, and also highlights the role of the dead in the construction both of Northern/Union nationalism and the Southern civic religion.

Byzantium and the Limits of Orthodoxy

This lecture presents the text of the speech about Byzantium and the limits of orthodoxy delivered by the author at the 2007 Raleigh Lecture on History held at the British Academy. It suggests that the Byzantines had a high understanding of orthodoxy and that they certainly give the impression of having a comprehensive doctrine. The lecture also discusses the Byzantine habit of self-conscious theorising about orthodoxy.

Mind the Gap; or Why Humans are Not Just Great Apes

This lecture presents the text of the speech about humans and apes delivered by the author at the 2007 Joint British Academy/British Psychological Society Annual Lecture held at the British Academy. It comments on the claim that an evolutionary perspective is not a competing paradigm for conventional explanations in the social sciences, and explains the why humans are so different from other apes and monkeys, despite the fact that we share so much of our evolutionary history with them.

Seventeenth-Century Draining of the Fens and the Impact on Navigation

This lecture presents the text of the speech about seventeenth-century draining of the fens and its impact on navigation delivered by the author at the 2008 British Academy Special Lecture. It traces the history of the body known as the Conservators of the River Cam as a navigation authority in 1702. The lecture discusses the papers published by the Cam Conservancy that portrayed the drainage works as having been seriously prejudicial to navigation.

Hamlet’s Two Fathers

This lecture presents the text of the speech about Hamlet's two fathers delivered by the author at the 2007 Shakespeare Lecture held at the British Academy. It re-examines the psychoanalytical explanation proposed by Sigmund Freud and his disciple Ernest Jones in Hamlet and Oedipus for Hamlet's famous delay in revenging the death of his royal father by killing Claudius. The lecture argues that the Freud–Jones thesis is deeply flawed in its analytical explanation of the cause of delay and that the oedipal and preoedipal nature of Hamlet's dilemma is indeed a key to understanding the cause of the delay.

Anthropology is Not Ethnography

This lecture presents the text of the speech about the differences between anthropology and ethnography delivered by the author at the 2007 Radcliffe-Brown Lecture in Social Anthropology held at the British Academy. It explains that the objective of anthropology is to seek comparative understanding of human beings, while ethnography aims to describe the lives of people other than ourselves. The lecture also discusses the distinction between idiographic and nomothetic inquiry.

Architectural Politics in Renaissance Venice

This lecture presents the text of the speech about the architectural politics in Renaissance Venice delivered by the author at the 2007 Italian Lecture held at the British Academy. It explores the role of architecture in the self-definition of a political regime and the extent to which state ideologies are communicated in public space. The lecture discusses the role of architecture in controlling the ideological meaning of public iconography.