Seminar in Middle East and North African Studies (301-2-20)
Topic
Ottoman & Qajar Photography in the Age of Oriental
Instructors
Thadeus Jay Dare Dowad
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 4-410: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
Topic: Ottoman & Qajar Photography in the Age of Orientalism, 1839-1914
From the first announcement of its invention in 1839, photography was linked with the Middle East, where it immediately became a tool of European imperialism in the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran. In the nineteenth century, photography served Europe's pictorial transformation of the Ottoman and Qajar worlds into the imaginary "Orient," characterized by backwards spirituality, perverse sexuality, and violent tyranny (hence ripe for European intervention). At the same time, photography was also taken up by a wide array Ottoman and Qajar subjects—from sultans and shahs to artists, scholars, and the Muslim middle classes—who adapted photography's powers to their own ends. This course traces the impacts of Ottoman and Qajar culture, politics, and social history on photography's development as a technology of representation in the nineteenth century. By focusing on photography's entangled history with European colonialism in the Middle East and North Africa, this course highlights Orientalism as both a source of inspiration and a site of contestation for Ottoman and Qajar photographers (and their subjects). The course examines a wide range of photographic genres, including royal portraiture, studio photography, ethnographic photography, and archaeological photography, as well as the many fascinating processes and materials of nineteenth-century photography, from the daguerreotype to photolithography.
Teaching Method
Lecture
Readings
Class participation
Evaluation Method
Paper, final
Attendance
Class participation
Readings
Writing assignments
Class Materials (Required)
N/A