Peter Merrington, novelist and Professor Extraordinaire in the Department of English University of the Western Cape, was guest speaker at UCT's Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great TextsBig Question lecture in September 2010. His illustrated lecture "First Light False Dawn" explores the making of a public cultural identity for a new nation and responds to the first hundred years (1910-2010) of South Africa as a unitary nation state. Merrington explores the meaning of heritage in the late nineteenth century in relation to then popular concepts of vernacular identity in England. He shows how ideas of Englishness influenced the quest for a new South African cultural vernacular and how the young ideologues drew on these ideas for their vision.

Andre Brink speaks on Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.

On Thursday 15 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecturer is Angelo Gobbato, one of South Africa's leading authorities on opera who will discuss Beethoven's Fidelio and selected Cape Town performances. Angelo Gobbato is widely acknowledged as having helped opera to flourish in South Africa and garner international interest and recognition. Having begun his operatic career as a bass Gobbato, he went on to become a highly successful opera director taking South African productions to appreciative audiences around the world. As Director of the UCT Opera School from 1982 to 2008 he spearheaded the transformation of opera turning CAPAB Opera Department into Cape Town Opera, the first independent professional opera company in Southern Africa. His programmes have broken boundaries bringing opera to the new audiences and fostering exceptional operatic talent. Gobbato has received many awards: a Merit Award from the department of Arts Culture and Heritage of the Western Cape in recognition of his outstanding achievement in and contribution to the performing Arts, the title Cavaliere nellordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana by the Italian Government, the Western Cape Premierrsquos Award for Special Contribution to the Cultural life of the Western Cape, the Khula Award for music, and an Honorary Doctorate from UCT for his contribution to the transformation of the vocal arts in South Africa. Upon his retirement UCT granted him the title of Emeritus Professor. Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera, reflects a struggle for political liberty and has relevance to the political history of South Africa. Gobbato's modernday production of Fidelio was set in Robben Island and tells the story of how Leonore disguised as a prison guard named Fidelio rescues her husband Florestan from death in the political prison This production introduced opera to South Africans that had never before been exposed to the art form.

On Thursday 29 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great Texts Big Questions guest speaker is Carrol Clarkson, an Associate Professor in English Department at the University of Cape Town. She will be discussing the work of Nobel Prize winning novelist JM Coetzee .GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions popular lecture series provides an opportunity to hear a leading intellectual discuss one of life's big questions or a significant book or artwork. The great texts under discussion in Clarks' lecture are "Waiting for the Barbarians" and "Disgrace." The publication of "Waiting for the Barbarians" confirmed Coetzee's standing as a novelist of international repute. "Disgrace" is Coetzee's most widely discussed and his most controversial work, not least because of the novel's winning of the Booker Prize in 1999, the charges of racism lodged against the novel at the Human Rights Commission, and the recent release of the film "Disgrace" starring John Malkovich. Clarkson's research interests lie in the philosophy of language and in post apartheid South African literature and art Her most recent publication is her book on Coetzee entitled JM Coetzee Countervoices. In her GIPCA lecture she will be asking a big question about the limits of literary representation with specific reference to "Waiting for the Barbarians" and "Disgrace."

One of South Africa's most prominent sociologists, Professor Deborah Posel, gave this Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great TextsBig Questions lecture, discussing "Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Waste". Thorsten Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class' conspicuous consumption of keeping up with the Joneses' describes the purchase of goods to show status or display wealt. Once more apparent within the nouveau riche or upper-income groups, recent research has indicated how conspicuous consumption is common in emerging economies where people buy to combat the impression that they are poor. Posel's lecture looks at the life and writings of the man who coined the phrase 'conspicuous consumption' and the controversies he provoked as an intellectual and social maverick. Writing in the late nineteenth century, Veblen was an economist whose version of economics was unrecognizable to many of his peers, not least because he produced an account of the origins of conspicuous consumption lodged in the intersections of human instinct, culture gender and war. Deborah Posel is the founding Director of UCT's Institute for Humanities in Africa.

Ian Glenn, Professor of Media Studies and Director of the University of Cape Town's Centre for Film and Media Studies, was guest speaker at this Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great TextsBig Question lecture. He discussed the influence of eighteenth century French explorer and ornithologist, Franccedilois le Vaillant, on modern South African culture. Franccedilois le Vaillant, 1753 - 1824, came to the Cape in 1781 on behalf of the Dutch East India Company to collect specimens of fauna and flora. He remained in South Africa until 1784 and made two major expeditions. In the first, he travelled from Cape Town to the Great Fish River and the Eastern Frontier. In the second, he journeyed north as far as the Orange River. His accounts of these travels were rapidly translated into all major European languages and widely distributed, putting the Cape firmly into the European consciousness. "Le Vaillant played a major role in establishing how Europe saw the Cape," says Glenn. He attempted to represent his South African experience in many ways, from the production of specimens to lavishly illustrated bird books and travel accounts and to innovative maps. In so doing, he created more than a single influential text, but rather a range of texts that shaped what came after him both here and elsewhere. This work helped shape many modern media genres and intellectual traditions. In many ways Le Vaillant is a founding figure of South African culture.

GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions popular lecture series provides an opportunity to hear leading intellectuals discuss one of life's big questions or a significant book or artwork. All of the lectures from 2009 were recorded and are now available online. Below is a brief summary of each talk. Follow the link above to the download page for the mp3 lectures. On Thursday 13 August AIDS activist Zackie Achmat will give a free public lecture on "The Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx and "The Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln. On Thursday 20 August cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro aka Zapiro will discuss "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. On Thursday 27 August philosopher David Benatar will address the question "Is life meaningless?" On Thursday 3 September neuroscientist and psychoanalyst Professor Mark Solms will address the question "What is the mind?" On Thursday 17 September the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecture will present an opportunity to hear one of the world's leading cosmologists discuss the way scientific and everyday views of the nature of things relate to each other. How do relativity theory quantum theory and cosmological theory change our views of the world and the universe? How do they relate to every day life? George Ellis Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town UCT promises to look at some of the key features of this relation in a way that make the topics accessible to a broader audience. The lecture is inspired by "The Nature of the Physical World" by early twentieth century astrophysicist Arthur Stanley Eddington. On Thursday 1 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great TextsBig Questions lecture will be Mamphela Ramphele who will discuss "To what extent has our transformation process embraced the intimate in public discoursere." The suggested background reading is Jonathan Jansenrsquos "Knowledge in the Blood." On Thursday 8 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecturer will be Professor Tim Noakes who will address "The body is willing but the mind is weak Or is it the other way aroundrd." The suggested reading is "Muscular Movement in Man The factors governing speed and recovery from fatigue" by AV Hill 1927. On Thursday 15 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecturer is Angelo Gobbato, one of South Africa's leading authorities on opera who will discuss Beethoven's Fidelio and selected Cape Town performances. On Thursday 22 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great TextsBig Questions lecturer is John Higgins a highly respected Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Cape Town UCT who will discuss a lyric by William Blake "Never seek to tell thy love love that never told can be." Higgins will show how readings of a single poem can also serve to exemplify some of the main intellectual and analytic currents of the past forty years including radical social movements of the 60's feminism and psychoanalysis in the 70's and the recent problematization of racism and xenophobia. On Thursday 29 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions guest speaker is Carrol Clarkson an Associate Professor in English Department at the University of Cape Town. She will be discussing the work of Nobel Prize winning novelist JM Coetzee.

On Thursday 17 September the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecture will present an opportunity to hear one of the worlds leading cosmologists discuss the way scientific and everyday views of the nature of things relate to each other. How do relativity theory quantum theory and cosmological theory change our views of the world and the universe? How do they relate to every day life? George Ellis Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town UCT promises to look at some of the key features of this relation in a way that make the topics accessible to a broader audience. The lecture is inspired by "The Nature of the Physical World" by early twentieth century astrophysicist Arthur Stanley Eddington. George Ellis is an internationally renowned cosmologist. In 1973 he cowrote "The Large Scale Structure of SpaceTime" with Stephen Hawking. He has written many other books and papers including "Flat and Curved Space Times" 1988 "The Dynamical Systems Approach to Cosmology" 1996 and "Is the Universe Open or Closed? The Density of Matter in the Universerse" 1997. Ellis has also won awards for his efforts to bring together science and religion. He cowrote "On the Moral Nature of the Universe: Cosmology Theology and Ethics" in 1996 and in 2002 wrote "The Universe Around Us: An Integrative View of Science and Cosmology." Like Eddington, Ellis is a member of the Religious Society of Friends commonly known as Quakers.

Professor Michael Steinberg, renowned American musicologist, was guest speaker at this Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great TextsBig Question lecture. He discusses "Is Richard Wagner still dangerous? Reflections on race politics and The Ring of the Nibelungrsquo". Steinberg reflects on how performers and scholars have confronted Richard Wagner (1813 to 1883), as well as the Ring's monumental mixture of music and drama, art and politics, myth and history. He is currently responsible for research and development of a new production of Richard Wagners "The Ring of the Nibelung" which is being jointly produced by the Teatro alla Scala Milano and the German State Opera. The Ring of the Nibelung is a monumental series of operas based on Norse mythology and written by the controversial German composer over a 26 year period. The four operas were first performed in a single cycle in 1876.

On Thursday 22 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) Great Texts Big Questions lecturer is John Higgins a highly respected Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Cape Town (UCT) who will discuss a lyric by William Blake "Never seek to tell thy love love that never told can be." Higgins will show how readings of a single poem can also serve to exemplify some of the main intellectual and analytic currents of the past forty years including radical social movements of the 60's feminism and psychoanalysis in the 70's and the recent problematization of racism and xenophobia. Professor Higgins is the Andrew Mellon Research Professor in the Archives and Public Culture project at UCT. The politics of higher education contemporary literary and cultural theory are his main research interests. One of the first humanists to be awarded an A-rating by the National Research Foundation he received the Cape Tercentenary Award of Excellence for his services to literature and culture in South Africa in 2000 and in October this year became a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

On Thursday 20 August cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro aka Zapiro will discuss "Maus" by Art Spiegelman as part of the Great Texts Big Questions public lecture series presented by the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA at the University of Cape Town UCT. During each Great Texts Big Questions lecture a highly regarded thought leader will discuss one of life's big question or a significant book or artwork. Shapiro studied under Art Spiegelman in New York during his Fulbright Scholarship Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel "Maus A Survivor's Tale" recounts his fatherr's experience of the Holocaust as a Polish Jew who survived Auschwitz.

Acclaimed novelist Imraan Coovadia spoke at UCT Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions public lecture on Thursday 1 April He discussed How to read Lolita. Written by Vladimir Nabokov Lolita was first published in Paris in 1955 It is one of the best known and most controversial books of 20th Century literature Coovadia says I will be talking about the Lolita problem How do we respond to a book which is a first person narrative by a man who is trying to seduce a 12 year old girl after marrying her mother Nabokov promises us readers bliss. Well what sort of bliss Is there a lesson in reading Lolita and why has Nabokov described it as the most moral of his novels. Imraan Coovadia is an Associate Professor in UCT English Department He has written many stories essays and book reviews as well as three novels: The Wedding, GreenEyed Thieves, and in 2009 High Low InBetween. Coovadia has worked extensively on Adam Smith, George Eliot, and VS Naipaul. He is currently studying the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov author of Lolita. Lolita Vladimir Nabakov image by lalagonca shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license

On Thursday 1 October the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecture will be Mamphela Ramphele who will discuss "To what extent has our transformation process embraced the intimate in public discourse." The suggested background reading is Jonathan Jansen's "Knowledge in the Blood." Mamphela Ramphele, former ViceChancellor of UCT and director of the World Bank, is an academic author and medical doctor. Her involvement in political activism and academic research has positioned her as a highly knowledgeable and respected thought leaders. Her Great Texts Big Questions lecture will be introduced by UCT's Vice Chancellor Max Price. It is not surprising that she has chosen to discuss the work of another eminent academic Jansen who deals with how South African students are influenced by a past they never lived and the social and political change after apartheid within universities.

One of South Africa leading language experts Professor Rajend Mesthrie was guest speaker at UCT Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts Great Texts Big Questions lecture on 15 April He discussed lSyntactic Structures Noam Chomsky and the colourless green revolution in language studies. Noam Chomsky is considered by many to be the father of modern linguistics Mesthrie lecture has Chomsky first book Syntactic Structures published in 1957 as a starting point Syntactic Structures started a revolution in language studies says Mesthrie. This involved a Kuhnian shift from the 1940s and 1950s approach of seeing Linguistics as a descriptive science characterizing the languages of the world to explaining the cognitive generative element of language in the human mind Mesthrie lecture will consider how Chomsky influenced fields as diverse as the psychology of language child language development grammar and sign language as well as his central place in understanding the social versus the genetic in the humanities Professor Rajend. Mesthrie holds a Research Chair in Linguistics within the University of Cape Town English Department a National Research Foundation sponsored SARCHI chair in Language Migration and Social Change He is a past president of the Linguistics Society of Southern Africa and a previous head of Linguistics at UCT between 1998 and 2009 He is series editor of Key Topics in Sociolinguistics for Cambridge University Press CUP and one of the co-editors of the CUP journal English Today He is a prolific author his publications include the edited collection Language in South Africa CUP 2002 described by reviewers as compulsory reading and essential knowledge for all students and scholars of sociolinguistics in South Africa. Dr Rob Baum director of UCT Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA said Chomsky influence on education and government which in ancient times were considered associated,if not synonymous, is inestimable. His theories on language studies are of global interest and have cultural and national relevance in South Africa today where there is much debate around language and identity. Noam Chomsky image by Fellowsisters shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license

In the wake of the controversy surrounding the Protection of Information Bill, UCT's Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) presents a panel discussion entitled,Not a Great Text but a Big Question: The Protection of Information Bill. Veteran writer, philosopher, academic and former Vice Chancellor of UCT, Professor Njabulo Ndebele, leads the panel that includes Professor David Benatar from UCT's Department of Philosophy and Tony Weaver Assistant Editor of the Cape Times. The panel was chaired by UCT academic and prominent theatre innovator and writer Mwenya Kabweldquo. Debate around the bill is strong says Jay Pather, Acting Director of GIPCA. Journalist Daryl Ilbury has written provocatively for the adoption of the bill stating that the Bill and its attendant tribunal may ironically free up journalists who will be forced to go underground for the noble pursuit of truth and write exactly what they want.

This lecture was delivered in an open forum and may be used to supplement lectures on this topic or as general interest podcast. In Pina Jackson in Mercemoriam, acclaimed Swiss contemporary dance artist, Foofwa dŐImobilitŽ, channels the spirits of three ŇroyalsÓ of dance who all passed away within one month of each other: King of Pop, Michael Jackson; Queen of Tanztheater, Pina Bausch; and the Emperor of Dance, Merce Cunningham. Avoiding morbid portrayals, Foofwa instead constructs something of a choreographic comedy - a triple ŇhumouriscriticÓ tribute. Foofwa, born FrŽdŽric Gafner in Geneva, was a student of the late Merce Cunningham, one of the great creative forces of American dance. His solo and collaborative works have earned him numerous international awards, including a New York ŇBessie AwardÓ (1995) and more recently an individual Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York (2009). His work also has graced the stages of the Paris Opera, the Fenice Theatre in Venice, Italy, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and over 40 other cities in Europe. Because he employs various theatrical modes and his choreography is full of play, illusion and risk, FoofwaŐs work has been hard to categorise. Pure dance, theatrical dance, experimental theatre, performance art, mime, and even stand-up comedy are amongst genres describing his work.

Warrant for Genocide the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is Professor Milton Shain topic for UCT Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecture on 22 April. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has been described as the world biggest literary forgery and yet despite intense research into this infamous text some still believe it is evidence of a Jewish plot for world domination. First published in Russian in 1903 The Protocols has appeared in many versions and has been used as an antisemitic anticommunist and political propaganda tool in Russia the USA and Nazi Germany In the first English version which appeared in the USA in 1919 the word Jew was replaced throughout by Bolshevik According to Shain The Protocols are at this time widely available in the Arab world. It has been claimed that The Protocols were originally stolen from a secret Jewish organisation in the late 19th Century However the so-called original has never been uncovered According to much research The Protocols are a forgery most of which was plagiarised from a book of fiction by French political satirist Maurice Joly Dialogue aux Enfers entre Montesquieu et Machiavel A Dialogue in Hell Between Montesquieu and Machiavelli first published in 1864 and translated into Russian in 1872Professor Milton Shain teaches Modern Jewish History and is Director of UCT Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research He has written and edited several books on South African Jewish history South African politics and the history of antisemitism Among them is the prizewinning The Roots of Antisemitism in South Africa and The Jews in South Africa An Illustrated History coauthored with Richard Mendelsohn His most recent book Zakor vMakor Place and Displacement in Jewish History and Memory co-edited by David Cesarani and Tony Kushner was runnerup in the Anthology and Collectionscategory of the National Jewish Book Award in the United States for 2009 In addition to his many books Professor Shain has published numerous academic articles and is the recipient of a number of awards including Fellowships at the International Centre for the University Teaching of Jewish Civilization at University of Jerusalem and Yale University Shain says I will be also talking of the history of The Protocols in South Africa and reflecting on the warm reception it has received worldwide. Dr Rob Baum director of UCT Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA said The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a highly contentious and horrific hoax that emerges every few years It will be fascinating to hear what so a learned scholar as Shain has to say on the topic and we hope it provoke debate the uses of this tract have been prolific and its recurrence is itself cause for question What makes inflammatory language hate speech directed at any people so compelling1934 Protocols Patriotic Pub image released in the public domain

World famous South African artist William Kentridge spoke at UCT Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions public lecture on Thursday 8 April He gave a lecture titled Putting the Sinto Laughter looking at Gogol short story The Nose His recent production of Shostakovich opera The Nose premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York earlier this month to rave reviews. Kentridge began working on the opera three years earlier producing etchings drawings small bronzes tapestries films and a theatrical monologue in which he performed In GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecture Kentridge will revisit his exploration of Gogol story written in 1836 and Shostakovich music first performed in Leningrad in 1930 before being suppressed and not seen again until 1974In 2009 Kentridge was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 people that most affect the world He has earned international acclaim for his interdisciplinary work which combines visual art theatre and film He uses different mediums to explore oppression colonialism conflict and reconciliation addressing the social political and cultural landscape Kentridge work has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries around the world He has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Arts MoMA in New York several times MoMA is currently presenting William Kentridge Five Themesa comprehensive survey of his distinguished career featuring over 120 works created during the past three decades in a range of mediums animated film drawings print books and theatre models The Nose is not Kentridge first foray into opera his production of Mozart Die Zauberfloumlte The Magic Flute premiered in Brussels in 2005 and its global tour included New York Naples and Johannesburg. Dr Rob Baum director of UCT Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA said they are honoured to be hosting so distinguished a speaker Part of what GIPCA intends to achieve in South Africa is to highlight interdisciplinary art and make it accessible to a broader audience To host an artist of Kentridge stature an artist who has raised the profile of interdisciplinary work to such a level with so global an effect and with such joyous imagination is a great privilege. Monument to Major Kovalyov nose image released in the public domain

RoseLee Goldberg South African-born world authority on performance art spoke at the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts GIPCA Great Texts Big Questions lecture on 11 March Goldberg illustrious career as art historian critic curator and author has spanned almost three decades and has helped shape the public view of live performance as a visual art form Her book Performance Art from Futurism to the Present was first published in 1979 and pioneered the study of performance art even today it is considered a definitive text on the topic Career highlights include directorship of the Royal College of Art Gallery London and curator of exhibitions at The Kitchen New York the Museum of Modern Art MOMA and the Guggenheim A graduate of Wits University and the Courtauld Institute of Art London University Goldberg has taught at New York University since 1987 and lectured extensively at Yale Princeton and Tate Modern among others Born and bred in Durban Goldberg has lived and worked predominantly in the USA and is currently visiting South Africa as a judge for Spier Contemporary. Committed to initiating new directions in visual art performance and to providing a framework for its history and reception Goldberg founded Performa www.performaarts.org New York in 2004 A multidisciplinary nonprofit arts organization Performa is dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first century. Rob Baum Director of GIPCA is thrilled to be hosting a speaker of Goldberg stature Performance art is a discursive arts practice that descends from early 20th Century antiart models It is an overt and interactive form one that is politically vocal and publicly accessible and can change the way people perceive the world she said TodaysArt 2005Nederlands. Dans Theater image by Haags Uitburo shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license