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SUMMARY:The two cultures controversy: science\, literature and cultural po
 litics in postwar Britain - Guy Ortolano (University of Virginia)
DTSTART:20090521T153000Z
DTEND:20090521T170000Z
UID:TALK17778@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lauren Kassell
DESCRIPTION:This talk will be about my recent book _The Two Cultures Contr
 oversy: Science\, Literature and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain_ (Ca
 mbridge\, 2009). Ever since the scientist-turned-novelist C.P. Snow clashe
 d with literary critic F.R. Leavis in the early 1960s\, it has been a comm
 onplace to lament that intellectual life is divided between 'two cultures'
 \, the arts and sciences. Yet why did a topic that had long been discussed
  inspire such ferocious controversy at this particular moment? This talk a
 nswers that question by recasting this dispute as an ideological conflict 
 between competing visions of Britain's past\, present and future. By excav
 ating the political stakes of the 'two cultures' controversy\, this talk s
 eeks to explain the workings of cultural politics during the 1960s more ge
 nerally\, while also revising the meaning of a term that continues to be e
 voked to this day.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, History and Philosophy of Science\, Department o
 f
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