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Our talks over the next three days aim to look at (perhaps) unfamiliar aspects of our society from completely new perspectives. For our first night we’re taking in three different approaches on interpreting the written word. We’ll explore the social conventions of the Victorian era through literature. We’ll wonder what it’s like to experience multiple languages within the same family. And finally, we will contemplate grief and loss through poetry. This venue serves a full food menu, and is fully accessible.
Big data, historical data and hidden meanings
Dr Seth Mehl
(Department of English)
Linguists study word associations to identify important meanings and concepts in particular times and places. Today, for example, we can ask English speakers what they associate with 'austerity' or ‘Europe’. Sometimes, however, we want to investigate meanings and concepts in history. How do we get into the minds of historical people? The Linguistic DNA project is studying word associations in texts written between 1470 and 1700, using computers to model relationships between words and historical concepts. This talk presents principles, processes, and findings in Early Modern English.
Who are you? Languages, families and Identities
Dr Sabine Little
(Department of Education)
Walking around Sheffield you hear lots of different languages - between couples, parents and children. You might speak multiple languages yourself. But what is it really like negotiating multiple languages in one family? To what extent are the languages we speak linked to our identity, and what happens when this sense of identity is not shared among family members? "Heritage languages", like any other heritage or inheritance, can be welcomed or rejected. This talk explores how families experience life in multiple languages and the pitfalls and successes multilingual family life can present.
Degenerates: Heredity and morality in Victorian fiction
Dr Helena Ifill
(School of English)
Many 19th century doctors and scientists theorised that a huge range of character traits and behaviours (ranging from alcoholism, to insanity, to criminality) were passed down by biological inheritance in such a powerful way that children were fated to repeat the failings of their parents. Such views were widely accepted, and affected how those who did not conform to moral and social conventions were perceived and treated. This talk considers how a popular novel, Wilkie Collins’s Armadale (1864), engaged with these views, and tried to champion those who were considered undesirable “by nature".
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