ARTH 3591 Art and the British Empire   Tuesday and Thursday 12:30 - 1:45PM Fayerweather Hall 208
INSTRUCTOR: Douglas Fordham	OFFICE: 306 Fayerweather Hall	CONTACT: fordham@virginia.edu

 

 

Course Overview:

William Blake famously said that “Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.” Could this possibly be true? How influential were the visual arts in shaping British imperialism and British perceptions of the world? This course examines the relationship of visual art to the British empire when the latter was at its height between 1750 and 1950. We examine representations from North America, the South Pacific, India, China, Africa, and Australia, as well as the ways in which these images were organized, perceived, and misperceived in Britain. From propaganda to subversive critique, we explore the interdependent roles of representation, exploration, and empire.

 

 

Course Format:

The course is divided into a series of thematic units in which we examine key episodes and questions in the history of British art and empire. In the first half of the semester you will be asked to write a series of short critical analyses on course readings. In the second half of the semester you will choose which geographical region you would like to research further, and you will join a small working group of your peers interested in that region. Each working group will focus on a geographic region such as the South Pacific, India, the Middle East, the Black Atlantic, etc…. Your research group will collaboratively research art produced in and about this region and create an annotated bibliography on that subject. Each member of your group will then choose a unique topic within that geographic region and write a ten-page research paper. At the end of the semester, your research group will be assigned a full class period to make oral presentations about your individual papers and the cumulative significance of those papers for our understanding of the region.

 

 

Course Objectives:

The course is designed to stimulate your curiosity and meet the following learning objectives.

·      You will learn to analyze works of art as creative fictions rich with interpretative possibilities.

·      You will be able to locate the major geographic regions of British imperial engagement and describe the key concepts and arguments about art produced in or about those regions.

·      The final research project will encourage you to organize and realize a group research project, to construct an argument from primary and secondary sources, to frame new questions about the relationship between art and empire, and to improve your oral presentation skills.

·      You will consider how British imperial history and representation continues to inflect our thinking about the world today.

 

 

Graded Assignments:

Active and Informed Participation: 15%

Attendance at class meetings and active, informed participation in class discussions are critical components of the course.  Come to class with the reading in hand, ready to propose ideas, arguments and questions for us to discuss.  Unexcused absences will diminish your participation grade. 

 

Discussion Thread Assignment: 15%

Students will post at least two responses to the course readings per week on the Discussion thread section of Collab. These two entries must be completed by Thursday morning of each week. This assignment will end when we begin work on our group bibliographies.

 

              Object Paper: 20%

On Mar. 21, students will submit a 5 page paper on a single object. The paper should: (i) review the existing literature; (ii) engage in a close visual and material analysis of the object itself; (iii) propose three avenues for further analysis and research.

 

Final Project Grade: 50%

Details of this assignment will be given out immediately after spring break.  For now, I would simply emphasize that the final project grade will be broken into four separate components:

            Stage 1:  Collaborative Research Bibliography – 30 points

            Stage 2:  Paper proposal - 10 points

            Stage 3: Oral Presentation - 10 points

            Stage 4: Individual 10-15 page paper – 50 points

   

                                   

 

 

 

 

 

William Blake famously said that “Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.” Could this possibly be true? How influential were the visual arts in shaping British imperialism and British perceptions of the world? This course examines the relationship of visual art to the British empire when the latter was at its height between 1750 and 1950. We examine representations from North America, the South Pacific, India, China, Africa, and Australia, as well as the ways in which these images were organized, perceived, and misperceived in Britain. From propaganda to subversive critique, we explore the interdependent roles of representation, exploration, and empire.