- Spring 2020
Syllabus Description:
ART H 312: ART AND EMPIRE IN INDIA, 1750-1900
MW 10:30-12:20
Spring 2020
Professor Sonal Khullar
Office: 363 Art Building
E-mail: skhullar@uw.edu
Office hours: Monday 1-2 pm, and by appointment
Francesco Renaldi, Muslim Lady Reclining, 1789, oil on canvas. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.
Course description:
This course surveys transformations in visual culture between the Mughal and British empires in India from the mid-eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries. We shall consider changes in artistic production, patronage, publics, and viewing protocols in the contexts of the court and bazaar. We shall examine the emergence of new technologies and its impact on visual forms, media, and genres, focusing on the interplay of photography, print, and painting. We shall explore the role of institutions –the art school, the museum, and the archeological survey– and the professions and practices they engendered. This is a reading- and writing-intensive course. Students with a background in related disciplines such as literature, history, religion, anthropology, and South Asian Studies are welcome.
Course requirements:
Your grade for the course will be assessed on the basis of class participation and quizzes (30%); and two papers (35% each, 2000 words, due in the fourth and eleventh weeks of the course).
All assignments must be completed for a passing grade. If you need an extension on a paper, please contact the instructor at least 48 hours in advance of the deadline. You must have a valid reason, such as a documented illness or a family emergency. For every day (including weekends) your paper is late, I will deduct half a grade. That is, a 4.0 will become a 3.5, a 3.5 will become a 3.0, etc. Papers handed in on the day they are due but after the deadline are also late. All papers must be typed, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins and in a 12-point Times font.
Course materials:
The textbook for the course is Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), available as an ebook through the UW Libraries (The 2009 edition, also available as an ebook, is fine too). Other required reading will be available electronically through the UW Libraries and/or on Canvas.