Prof. Nicholls Delivers Invited Lecture at the University of Macau
Professor Angus Nicholls delivered a talk at the University of Macau on 6 November 2025. His lecture, titled From Technological to Digital Reproducibility: Teaching Literature in the Age of A.I., was part of the Department of English Distinguished Lecture Series.
Abstract of the lecture:
Since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, intense debates have emerged within the humanities—and literary studies in particular—concerning the practice of teaching literature at universities. In this talk, I will explore these debates through the lens of Walter Benjamin’s concept of “technological reproducibility,” developed during the 1930s to describe the emergence of photography and film.
Today, much digital content—including digitized literature—is instantly reproducible, transmissible, and marketable via online platforms and networks. Literary texts can also be repurposed as training data for Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, which may then be used by writers and students to generate new content. These developments raise critical questions: Is digital reproducibility fundamentally different from what Benjamin termed technological reproducibility? And if so, what are the implications not only for the teaching of literature but also for literature itself?
See more about Prof Angus Nicholls here.