Orientalism: Then and Now                                                  Professor E. Fraser

ARH 4800-002 and ARH 6798-001                                        office: FAH 272, 974-4549

Spring 2006, Mondays 2-5:50                                                  Email: fraser@arts.usf.edu

                                                                                                (Leave messages: 974-2360)

Office hours: Wednesdays, 3:00-4:30 p.m., FAH 272, and by appointment

 

Class description:

In 1978 Edward Said published his ground-breaking book, Orientalism, in which he argued that there has been institutionalization of the “Orient” within the West. Orientalist discourse, he claimed, acted on the East to render it visible, to submit it to the mastery of the West.  Since then, this view has been revised and criticized, especially by post-colonial theorists who say that the notion of Orientalism disempowers the colonized cultures of the Middle East. Our class will look at this historical and theoretical debate through the filter of art, literature, and film dealing with the Islamic cultures of the Middle East and the Mediterranean (from Turkey to Egypt and North Africa).  We will emphasize western representations of the “Orient,” but we will also look at some indigenous artists, writers, and postcolonial theorists of Islamic cultures.  The core of the class is historical, with a focus on the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, but we will also look at parallels between this colonial history and contemporary culture and politics.

 

Objectives:

Students taking this class will acquire a working knowledge of Orientalist theory; a basic view of post-colonial thought; and a good grasp of the main issues and images involved in Western representations of Islamic cultures of the period.  Students will also learn about the history of western colonization of the Islamic world and modern responses by the colonized to this history.  Students will also develop their ability to analyze complex texts and visual imagery and will master the geography of the Mediterranean basin.

 

Undergraduate prerequisite: 19th-Century Art (ARH 4430)

 

Assignments (see detailed descriptions on page three):

- participation in class discussion and one group-led discussion

- position papers

- map test: the Mediterranean

- group presentations of supplementary images

- research paper

 

Books for purchase at USF bookstore (most optional though recommended):

** Edward Said, Orientalism required

Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Extremities

Jill Beaulieu and Mary Roberts, eds., Orientalism’s Interlocutors

Assia Djebar, Women of Algiers in Their Apartment

Roger Benjamin, Orientalist Aesthetics

** Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art (any edition) required of all participants

 

Also highly recommended: Todd Porterfield, Allure of Empire, now out of print, but widely available on internet bookstores like Half.com, BookFinder.com, and Amazon.com.

The Riot Act: Attendance policy

Since this is a seminar, most of the work takes place during class time.  Because we meet only once a week, no absences are allowed.  Every absence will affect your final grade; two absences (or more) of any kind (except in truly dire circumstances) will automatically reduce your final grade to a “C” or lower.  If you know at the beginning of the term that you may have a conflict with any class meeting, for whatever reason, you should not sign up for this class.

 

Approximate grade distribution

25% participation in discussion (including group-led discussion)

Exchanging ideas and opinions is an integral part of intellectual development; explaining your thinking to your classmates is the best way to test your ideas and to move beyond assumptions.  Class discussion is a collective learning process in which a diversity of views and approaches enriches us all.  Good participation is active, thoughtful, and respectful of other students; monopolizing discussion rather than listening and responding to other students will be evaluated negatively.

25% weekly position papers (distributed on E-mail before class)

20% presentations

30% final essay

 

Class E-mail list:

I will sign you up.  To send a message, use this address:

            Orientalism@listmonster.cvpa.usf.edu

 

Other resources recommended for this class:

In the readings for this class, you will encounter unfamiliar names, historical and geographical references, and words.  These resources, online databases available through the library’s website, will help you figure out these concepts and I encourage you to use them often.

            - Encyclopaedia Britannica Online

            - link to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary from Britannica.  This is particularly good for looking up etymologies (the history and origins of words), something we discuss periodically in class

            -Grove Dictionary of Art Online (Groveart), for looking up unfamiliar art references and basic information about individual artists and artistic movements.

           

For research

- Bibliography in the History of Art (BHA), online bibliographic database available through the library’s website: the essential research tool for art history.

- New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery: The Middle East in Early Prints and Photographs

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm

More than 1,100 prints and photographs contained in works from the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century. These include books illustrated with prints or photographs, photograph albums, and archival compilations; the processes represented range from engravings to lithographs, and from salt prints to heliogravures.

 

Help with writing

- Barnet’s Short Guide to Writing about Art is required; your familiarity with information in this book will be assumed in evaluation of your final research paper.

- Visit the U.S.F. Writing Center, Cooper Hall 257, tel. 974-9572.  In one-on-one sessions, trained consultants assist students in developing their writing skills.  Call or drop in to make an appointment to have a rough draft reviewed.  http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/wcntr/index.html.

Class schedule

Refer to class bibliography for complete references to readings.  All books and articles are on reserve. 

* signifies a group-led discussion of assigned reading

 

Jan 9 Introduction to class

Jan 16 NO CLASS: Martin Luther King Day!

 

I.  Orientalism: Theory and Science

Jan 23            

-Bernard Lewis, “Revolt of Islam”(e-reserve);

-Linda Nochlin, “Imaginary Orient” (e-reserve);

-Donald Rosenthal, Orientalism, read “Introduction” (pp. 8-11) and study images.

            In class: viewing of Said on Orientalism (40 mins)

 

Jan 30 READ SAID: no seminar meeting!

 

Feb 6 Said, Orientalism, pp. 1-197

            In class: Julie Weitz presents her painting

 

Feb 13 Travelers to Egypt

-David Prochaska, “Art of Colonialism, Colonialism of Art: The Description de l’Egypte (1809-1828)” (e-reserve);

-Derek Gregory, “Emperors of the Gaze: Photographic Practices and Productions of Space in Egypt, 1839-1914," in Schwartz and Ryan, eds. (e-reserve).

In class: Liza Oliver presents her research on the Napoleonic Description de l’Egypte and illustrated Egyptian travel narratives                     

                       

Feb 17 Required attendance at:

W.J.T. Mitchell, Professor of Art History and English at the University of Chicago and Editor of Critical Inquiry, speaks on “Cloning Terror: The War of Images, 2001-2004"

            7 pm, USF Music Recital Hall, FAH 101

 

Feb 20: NO CLASS

 

*Feb 27 Painting Napoleon’s Egypt

-Darcy Grigsby, Extremities, pp. 65-163.

Group presentation: Francis Frith, photographic albums of Egypt in Special Collections Room of USF Library

 

II. Harems

*Mar 6  History and tradition

-Leslie Peirce, Imperial Harem: Preface and Introduction (e-reserve);

-Joan DelPlato, “The Colonial Contexts for the Harem Representation,” in Multiple Wives, pp. 30-57;

-Hollis Clayson,  “Henri Regnault’s Wartime Orientalism,” in Beaulieu and Roberts, eds., Orientalism’s Interlocutors.

Group presentation: Odalisques and “Oriental” Women in Ingres, John Frederick Lewis, and Gérôme

 

Mar 13: Spring break

 

*Mar 20  Delacroix in North Africa

-Todd Porterfield, “The Women of Algiers,” Allure of Empire, pp. 117-141;

-Grigsby, “Orients and Colonies,” in Wright, ed., pp. 69-87

Group presentation: Delacroix’s Moroccan notebooks (four facsimile volumes) in Special Collections Room of USF Library

 

Mar 27 Postcolonial responses

-Porterfield, “Afterword,” pp. 143-152;

-Assia Djebar, “Women of Algiers in Their Apartment,” and “Forbidden Gaze and Severed Sound,” pp. 1-52 and 133-154 (be sure to read both the Overture and the footnotes on pp. 153-4!)

            In class viewing of Battle of Algiers (125 mins.), G. Pontecorvo, 1966.

FINAL PAPER TOPICS DUE!

 

*Apr 3 Women and the Harem

-Mary Roberts, “Contested Terrains: Women Orientalists and the Colonial Harem,” in Beaulieu and Roberts, eds., introduction and Roberts, pp. 179-203 (pp. 179-203 is on e-reserve);

-Leila Ahmed, “The Discourse of the Veil” (e-reserve)

            -In class: video, interview with Leila Ahmed, Women and Islam (30 mins.)

-Group presentation: Women’s representations of the “Oriental” woman (from Reina Lewis’s two books on reserve)

Research bibliography and due!

 

III.  Writing Orientalism Now

*Apr 10 Roger Benjamin, Orientalist Aesthetics

Group presentation: E. Lessore and W. Wyld, illustrated travel book on French Algeria, in library’s Special Collections

Preliminary paper description due!

 

Apr 13-14 Required attendance at

“Post Colonialism and After,” symposium with keynote speakers art historian Okwui Enwezor and artist Alfredo Jaar.  Schedule and location TBA.

 

Apr 17 R. Benjamin, Orientalist Aesthetics

 

Apr 24 NO CLASS: PREPARE RESEARCH PAPERS!

 

Apr 28 Final research paper due

Explanations of class assignments

 

Position papers

Approximately one full page, due weekly: send on class E-mail list by Sunday (day before class) at 5:30 p.m.  Bring hard-copy with you to class to be handed in.

 

The form of the position papers is very free, but should include at least the following:

1) What is the main argument?

2) What evidence and what sources are used to defend this argument?

3) How is this author’s view or method different from or similar to others’ we’ve read?

4) List your questions about the reading (discussion questions and questions about concepts you don’t understand).

 

The position papers are meant to help you come to class prepared to discuss, ensuring that you have digested the reading with some critical distance.  You should read all other students’ position papers before class meeting each week, bringing in questions and points of contention about them.  If you are absent from class, whether with or without an excuse, you are required to turn in a position paper for that class meeting by the next class period.

 

Position papers are your responses to the assigned readings.  You are meant to focus on the main issues, raise questions or problems you have with the reading, and consider the author’s interpretive position; we will use them in class discussion.  You will not be evaluated on the literary form but on the content and thoughtfulness of your position papers.  It is very important to realize that the position papers are not summaries or re-statements of the authors’ position, but your own anaylses of the readings.  Since the position papers are a major component of your work for this class, they should be substantial and considered.  You should work towards focusing on the global issues posed by readings, not on minor points or bits of information.

 

Presentations:

Small groups will present supplementary visual materials to the class, providing chronological contexts, and historic, visual, and thematic analyses.  Group presentations should take about one hour total.  The goal is to apply ideas from class to visual material and to extend the pool of images for class discussion.  After careful research, you will present basic information and interpretation of these images.  You will also distribute a substantial research bibliography related to your topic to class members.  (Please consult with me for direction several weeks before your presentation.)

 

Short research paper

A focused investigation of a topic related to class material, ideally engaging some aspect of Said’s ideas and the reinterpretation of them.  Undergraduates: at least 7 pp; Graduates: at least 10 pp.

Full bibliography of class readings

 

Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

            Beaulieu, Jill, and Mary Roberts, eds. Orientalism's Interlocutors: Painting, Architecture, Photography. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002.

Benjamin, Roger.  Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880-1930. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

Del Plato, Joan. Multiple Wives, Multiple Pleasures: Representing the Harem, 1800-1875: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.

            Djebar, Assia. Women of Algiers in Their Apartment. Trans. Marjolijn de Jager. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 1992.

            Grigsby, Darcy Grimaldo. Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002.

            ———. "Orients and Colonies: Delacroix's Algerian Harem." In Wright, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Delacroix, 69-87. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.      

Lewis, Bernard. "Revolt of Islam." New Yorker, Nov. 19 2001, 50-63.

            Nochlin, Linda. "The Imaginary Orient." In Politics of Vision; Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society, 33-59. New York: Harper and Row, 1989.

Peirce, Leslie Penn. The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

            Porterfield, Todd. The Allure of Empire; Art in the Service of French Imperialism, 1798-1836. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.

            Prochaska, David. "Art of Colonialism, Colonialism of Art: The Description de l'Egypte (1809-1828)." L'esprit créateur 34 (1994): 69-91.

Rosenthal, Donald.  Orientalism; the near East in French Painting, 1800-1880. Rochester, N.Y.: Memorial Art Gallery of the Unversity of Rochester, 1982.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New  York: Random House, 1978.

Schwartz, Joan, and James Ryan, eds. Picturing Place: Photography and the Geographical Imagination. London: I.B. Tauris, 2003.

 

Related material, mostly on reserve:

Alloula, Malek. The Colonial Harem. Trans. Myrna Godzich and Wlad Godzich. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.

            Bohrer, Frederick. Orientalism and Visual Culture: Imagining Mesopotamia in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Brown, Marilyn. "The Harem Dehistoricized: Ingres's Turkish Bath." Arts Magazine (1987), pp. 58-68. [You must get this in the periodicals room on 2nd floor of library.]

Clifford, James. "On Orientalism." In The Predicament of Culture: 20th-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, 255-76. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Hackforth-Jones, Jocelyn, and Mary Roberts, eds.  Edges of Empire: Orientalism and Visual Culture.  Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.

Lewis, Reina.  Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity and Representation.  New York, London: Routledge, 1996.

Lewis, Reina.  Rethinking Orientalism; Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem.  New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

Melman, Billie. Women's Orients: English Women and the Middle East, 1718-1918: Sexuality, Religion and Work. London: Macmillan, 1992. Reprint, 1995.

            Williams, Patrick, and Laura Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

 

 

How to get electronic reserves from home (remote access), using MyUSF (Blackboard):

 

Go to MyUSF (Blackboard) web address: https://my.usf.edu/

 

            Sign up for account and log in.

 

            You get a menu; click on USF Libraries (top right).

 

            Click on USF libraries (again).

 

            Click on Reserves.

 

            Type in title or author of reading.

 

            Click on link for reading desired.

 

                        You will get a request for a user id and password: type in your MyUSF user id and password.

 

            The link will open and the reading will appear on your screen.

 

 

            [Troubleshooting: call USF reference librarians at 974-2729.]