This course investigates how art and art practices have contributed to producing and contesting power in early modern and modern Asia. We explore the connections and ruptures between early modernity and modernity in different regions of Asia with a focus on three major fields in which people created parallel spaces dominated by authorities and alternative communities: Space, Popular Visual Culture, and Modernism. The first two sections - Space and Popular Visual Culture - will focus on modes of expression in early modern East Asia. In the Space section, we will examine three types of spatial realities: religious/auspicious space, urban space, and natural space in crisis. The second section explores how popular visual culture facilitated escape from control by producing alternative realities. The third section - Modernism - moves to the modern period, and looks at 19th and 20th century art and visual cultures from Asia that emerged out of socio-political encounters and negotiations, and counter/hegemonic imaginations. This pilot course brings together art from transnational Asian contexts and histories and forges dialogues between pre-modern and modern histories of art, as well as those between art-making, political thought, human-nature interfaces and meta-processes of empire, colonialism, decolonization, displacements and internationalisms.
Students will acquire disciplinary and area studies skills in this course:
They will learn analytical methods in the fields of art history and cultural studies: Students will develop a critical understanding of key terms in art history, such as space, gaze, modernism, and popular visual culture. They will learn to use these terms as critical analytical categories, which they can then apply to their own research projects.
The course fosters historical awareness of the intersections of art and power in Asia by covering both the early modern and modern periods.
Students will develop critical awareness in applying critical terms of art history and cultural studies to the study of art and art practices in early modern and modern Asia: Through secondary readings, students will engage critically with historical developments in applying these terms to the study of early modern and modern Asian art, and they will apply these insights practically by doing their own analysis of selected case studies pertaining to their own research projects and interests.
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Attendance is compulsory for all sessions. Students must prepare well and contribute to in-class discussion. If a student cannot attend because of illness or misadventure, they should promptly inform the convener. Extra assignments may be set to make up for missed class time, at the convener’s discretion. Absence without notification may result in lower grades or exclusion from assessment components and a failing grade for the course.
Students should familiarize themselves with the notion of academic integrity and the ways in which this plays out in their own work. A good place to start is this page. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students may not substantially reuse texts they have previously submitted in this or other courses. Minor overlap with previous work is allowed as long as it is duly noted in citation.
Students must submit their assignment(s) to Brightspace through turnitin, so they can be checked for plagiarism. Submission via email is not accepted.
Assessment and weighing
|Class participation/contribution, webpostings and presentations; These will include working in groups on webpostings and class presentations. Weekly webpostings of 250-300 words approx. will need to be submitted on Bightspace.||40%|
|3 Short Essays of 1,500 – 2,000 words each on three key modules of the course (Space; Popular Visual Culture; Modernism) 20% each||60%|
Detailed instructions will be provided in class.
In order to pass the course, students need a pass mark (“voldoende”, i.e. “5.50” or higher) for the course as a whole.
All categories of assessment must be completed in the same academic year. No partial marks can be carried over into following years.
Resits will be allowed only for the short essays (60% of the course)
Only if the total weighted average is 5.49 or lower and this is the result of one or more of the short essays graded 5.49 or lower, a re-sit of one or more of the short essays is possible (20% each). In that case the convener of the course may decide to assign a new topic. The deadline for this version will be determined by the course convener, after consultation with the student. A re-sit for other course components is not possible.
Inspection and feedback
If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
To be announced closer to the start of the semester.
For Research MA students, additional reading will be determined by the convener at a later stage taking into account the students’ fields of interest. Extra sessions will be organized to discuss this extra literature.
Registration Studeren à la carte en Contractonderwijs
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Vrieshof