Knowledge Exchange

2014

Second Century Lecture Series
Lecture by Professor Germaine Greer

Creativity and Gender

Germaine Greer

Date: April 8, 2014, Tuesday
Time: 6:15 pm to 7:30 pm
(Tea Reception and Registration start at 5:45 pm)
Venue: Rayson Huang Theatre, The University of Hong Kong

Is human creative endeavour like birdsong? Male birds sing in the mating season and fall silent once mating has been accomplished. Is their song meant to seduce female birds or to assert their dominance over other males? Is nest-building the female equivalent of artwork? The painter Baselitz has just caused a storm by saying that women cannot paint; women are now the majority of students in art schools, but painting is no longer what artists do. Though it is no longer politically correct to say so, men dominate in all fields of creative endeavour. If we study records of art sales, we shall see that the art activity of men is worth many times more than the art activity of women. What does that tell us about gender and creativity in today’s world?

About Professor Greer:
Germaine Greer was born in Melbourne and educated in Australia and at Cambridge University. Her first book, "The Female Eunuch" (1969), took the world by storm and remains one of the most influential texts of the feminist movement. Germaine Greer has had a distinguished academic career in Britain and the USA. She makes regular appearances in print and other media as a broadcaster, journalist, columnist and reviewer. Since 1988 she has been Director (and financier) of Stump Cross Books, a publishing house specialising in lesser-known works by early women writers.

About the Second Century Lecture Series:
The Second Century Lecture Series aims to maintain the momentum of the University's Centenary celebrations by bringing the most distinguished scholars in their field to share their experience and world-class expertise with the University and the public.

This Second Century Lecture is organised by the Faculty of Arts and supported by the Faculty of Social Sciences, The Hong Kong International Literary Festival, and Swindon Book Co Ltd.

Full lecture video:

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