Addressing works in a range of media - painting and the graphic arts, photography, sculpture, artefacts and architecture - produced by British and Indian subjects between c.1780 and c.1900, the course examines the role that these works played in the articulation of colonial power, desire, anxiety and resistance in ‘colony’ and ‘metropolis’ alike. The new visual forms which emerged in this encounter (whether late Mughal miniatures or late Victorian monuments) will therefore be analysed alongside the forms of their consumption and display, addressing aspects of collecting, commodification, exchange, and appropriation. In turn, the course will consider the colonial artefact’s relation to issues of knowledge, identity, memory and ritual. Drawing on a range of methodological approaches (including anthropological, historical and postcolonial theories), this course will reflect upon the possibilities of a transcultural analysis and consider its implications for the disciplinary practice of art history, conventionally rooted in the notion of the national and the concept of the autonomous artwork.
At the end of this module students should have acquired:
Module information
- Module title
Art & Raj: Visual Culture and British Imperialism in India c.1780-1900- Module number
HOA00024M- Convenor
Jason Edwards
For postgraduates