ART 355 - South Asia and the British Empire

This course examines the art and architecture of South Asia, focusing on changes in artistic production and patronage vis-à-vis the shifting political, economic and social contexts of the British Empire. The class will provide a historical overview of British colonialism in South Asia, moving chronologically around historical transitions, from the expansion of the British East India Company in the eighteenth century and the rise of high imperialism in the nineteenth century to the development of Indian nationalism in the early twentieth century. Through key case studies, including regional Indian and British paintings, colonial museums, photography, and print cultures, we will critically examine how art operates within and against imperial frameworks-both as an instrument of empire and as a site of mimicry, resistance, and fracture. By interrogating the relationship between art and empire through theoretical frameworks of Orientalism, mimesis, transculturation, and postcolonial theory, we will forge new possibilities for studying and writing about art in the context of colonial and cross-cultural encounters.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): ART 201
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).