ARTH 400(S) Visions and Tension of Empire: Architecture, Urba Design and the Arts in 19th and 21st Century Colonial and Post-Colonial Worlds of Asia and Africa (Same as Africana Studies 402)*

This seminar will consider the nature of the "colonial encounter" and its relation to architecture, urban planning, photography and art traditions in former anglophone and francophone Asian and African colonies. We will also examine how traces of colonialism merged with the arts in postcolonial situations in the contexts of the construction of national identities, tourism and international health care. The course will emphasize both the European colonizers and the colonized peoples in institutional (missionary, government offices, hospitals, military, museums) and everyday contexts. Throughout the seminar we will explore several issues central to colonialism. Some of these include: To what extent can colonialism be seen as a monolithic system?; How was colonial authority maintained?; How were people's sense of themselves challenged by confronting different worlds?; and What role did material culture play in the explicit articulation of "worldviews" about the nature of humanity, civilization and history, and the more implicit process through which things "taken-for-granted" were continually redefined and remade? In order to address these issues we will examine several case studies, including: Hanoi; Phnom Penh; Antananarivo; Bône (Annaba); Rabat; Pretoria; Cape Town; New Delhi; northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo; and southern Cameroon.
Format: Seminar. Requirements: research paper. This final project will be individual in scope and the result of the student's own research interests and needs with respect to the seminar.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10).Preference given to Art History majors. This course Satisfies the seminar or non-western requirements in Art History.

Hour: BIRD