Dorset Archives Trust with the Thomas Hardy Society are promoting a series of three fascinating lectures which will examine aspects of Hardy’s life and work referencing elements of his archival legacy. You can find details of the talks below.
Hardy’s UNESCO-inscribed archive – 150 boxes of the author’s records ranging from the manuscript of The Mayor of Casterbridge through poetry, correspondence, photographs and much more. You can read more about the archive here. Our challenge is to make it accessible. This internationally important archive is not visible to the outside world due to the lack of a catalogue.
We are therefore working hard to raise funds to employ an Archivist to lead an 18-month project to produce a detailed catalogue of the author’s extensive archive. This will be freely available to all online and will encourage engagement with Hardy’s life and works through the evidence he left behind him.
If you would like to contribute, you can pledge your support here.
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Thursday 9th March 2023 7.00 p.m: Thomas Hardy and Charles Darwin: lives in letters
Professor Angelique Richardson & Dr Paul White
This talk will consider the centrality of letters to the work and lives of Thomas Hardy and Charles Darwin, shedding new light on their lives and work and revealing the common ground they shared. Exploring how both valued the reciprocal relations of science, emotion and the imagination.
Professor Richardson is Professor of English and a historian of science at the University of Exeter where she leads the Hardy’s Correspondents Project. Dr White is an editor of the Darwin Correspondence Project and is an Affiliated Scholar in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge.
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Thursday 16th March 2023 7.00 p.m: Hardy, Herrison and Nineteenth Century Insanity
Dr Tracy Hayes
How was the notion of insanity treated during the 19th Century? Dr Hayes will explore this through a focus on Hardy’s presentations of mental instability in characters such as William Boldwood in Far from the Madding Crowd and others. She will also consider Dorset’s own mental asylum – Herrison Hospital.
Dr Hayes is a Researcher in Thomas Hardy, Victorian Literature and History, Masculinities, and the Gothic. She is also the Secretary, Website and Social Media Coordinator for the Thomas Hardy Society.
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Thursday 23rd March 7.00 p.m: Reconstructing Wessex
Professor Kester Rattenbury
Architectural critic and academic Professor Rattenbury’s recent work studied Hardy from an architectural perspective – offering startling insights into a man who never stopped thinking, writing and working like an architect. She reveals his biting commentaries on the architectural issues of his day, and experiments in representation which would still be radical a century later.
Kester Rattenbury is Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster.
£10 per lecture or £25 for the full series of three lectures
You can book your ticket to one or more of these events here!
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These are online events via Zoom. They will be recorded and available for a period of 4 weeks, after the end of the series, to those who have booked for the event(s).
Joining instructions and a link to the event will be sent by email by the day of the event.