Special Topics in 19th-Century Art (359-0-1)
Topic
Cairo/Paris: Art & Empire in the Modern City
Instructors
Thadeus Jay Dare Dowad
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-410: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
Cairo/Paris: Art & Empire in the Modern City
This course explores the co-evolution of artistic modernity and the colonial metropolis in the 19th century with a focus on Ottoman Cairo and its connections to the traditional center of scholarship on art, empire, and modernity: Paris. Beginning with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 and ending with the country's occupation by the British in 1882, this course will trace Cairo's cultural transformations through close attention to a range of objects and sites—paintings, political cartoons, urban monuments, museums, world's fairs, architecture, and scientific illustration—produced at the nexus of Franco-Ottoman rivalry and cooperation. This course challenges conventional binaries of East vs. West, traditional vs. modern, and local vs. global by exploring art's active roles in shaping urban life across these two cities. Special attention will be paid to the transcultural formation of national, racial, gender, and sexual identities.
Class Materials (Required)
No textbook required.
Class Notes
There is an internal waitlist for this course. You can find waitlist instructions here: https://arthistory.northwestern.edu/courses/2023-2024/registration_waitlist.html
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline