Visiting Professor of Creative Media lecture with Jeanette Winterson: The Word-Zoo

This lecture took place at the University of Oxford's English Faculty in October 2022. It was Jeanette Winterson's first lecture as Visiting Professor of Creative Media. The title of the talk is: 'The Word-Zoo: Language in the time of Tabloids, TikTok, Conspiracy Cults, Brexit, and AI. Evolution? Conservation? Extinction?' ‘When I use a word’, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’ The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s all’ Jeanette Winterson CBE is a British writer. Her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published in 1985, when she was 24. She later scripted it into a BBC Bafta winning drama. Twenty-seven years she returned to that material in her 2011 memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? She has written more than 20 books of fiction and non-fiction, including a collaboration with the sculptor Antony Gormley: LAND. Her latest book is a collection of essays on AI: 12 Bytes at AI – How we got here and where we might go next. Her work is published in 27 countries. The Visiting Professorship of Creative Media at the English Faculty was established in 1996, as part of a generous benefaction from Rupert Murdoch. It is an annual appointment and the Professor will give a series of lectures during the academic year. https://www.english.ox.ac.uk/visiting-professor-of-creative-media