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Research Seminar (395-0-24)

Topic

Indiana Jones in Historical Context

Instructors

Rajeev Kumar Kinra
847/467-1241
Harris Hall - Room 307

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 223: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

This course will examine the Indiana Jones films from the perspective of three key historical frames of reference. First, there is the context of European colonial expansion in Asia and Africa during the 19th and early 20th centuries — a formative stage for the emergence of a modern scholarly idiom about places like Egypt, India, and "The Orient" generally, much of which would have been inherited by an archaeologist (even a fictional one) like Jones. Secondly the 1930s, the timeframe of the films themselves, when British and French colonial power was on the wane, Nazi Germany was on the rise, and America was on the cusp of its own emergence as a global "superpower" in the wake of World War II. In this latter contest for global supremacy, too, the nexus between geopolitical power and scholarly knowledge loomed large, both in real life and in the Jones films. And yet one also has to remember that the films' idealization of Jones and the 1930s actually emerges from a nostalgic, late Cold War vantage point. Thus our third historical frame of reference — basically, from the 1980s to the present — will force us to examine the earlier legacies of Western power and knowledge from our own perspective, as they are refracted in the films, and as they have been re-imagined and redeployed in the present-day American political and cultural imagination.

Learning Objectives

Improve our research and writing skills; improve our ability to think critically about historical narratives, how they are constructed, and how they contribute to popular stereotypes about the non-Western world

Evaluation Method

Short essays during the quarter; final research paper; class participation

Class Notes

Concentration: Americas, European, Asia/Middle East

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Distro Area

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Freshmen may not register for this course.