Human Intelligence
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- Episode
- Collectors: Sei Shōnagon
- Broadcast Info
- 2025 (14 mins)
- Description
- Naomi Alderman wonders at lady-in-waiting, writer and all-round entertainer Sei Shōnagon, who wrote The Pillow Book over a thousand years ago in the Japanese imperial court. The Empress and her entourage lived in a closed world, glimpsed through half-shut blinds, while political machinations went on all around them. Poetry and wit were highly prized; and Sei Shōnagon was unmatched. In dark times, she picked out the beauty and absurdity in everyday life; and pulled together poetry, anecdote, essays and lists to create a whole new genre in Japanese - miscellany.
- Genre
- History
How to cite this record
The Open University, "Human Intelligence". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/251957 (Accessed 24 Dec 2025)