The labyrinth of monsters at the end of the world: Borges and the biological sciences. Talk with Pablo La Padula

Pablo La Padula's lecture traces a temporal and reflexive arc on the visual history of the biological sciences and their capacity to build cultural/natural imagery. To this end, the talk will take as its guiding axis the only Borgean narrative work specifically dedicated to animals: Manual of Fantastic Zoology. Thus, guided by the voice of Jorge Luis Borges, we will travel as disoriented explorers through the intricate labyrinths of natural philosophy, where the fantastic animals of Pliny the Elder, in dialogue with the disturbing and promising transgenic monsters of the contemporary world, will raise the ethical questions of the end of the biological world as we know it.