Art and Cultural Identity

Anthropology 37 Visiting Prof. Carol Solomon Kiefer

Fayerweather 117 MW 2:00-3:20

This interdisciplinary course examines issues of art and cultural identity. We will consider strategies employed by artists from the nineteenth century to the present who negotiate the terrain of cultural identity in their work. Key theoretical texts by Stuart Hall, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and others will inform discussions on the definition of cultural identity, competing claims of place and time, national, regional, religious, geographic, and ethnic identity. We will consider the experience of exile, displacement, diaspora, alienation, hybridity, and in-betweeness. Other topics include cultural imperialism, orientalism, and cultural property debates. Student papers will focus on works by contemporary artists in the spring 2008 exhibition at the Mead Art Museum entitled The Third Space: Cultural Identity Today. Several artists represented in the show will visit the class.

No prerequisites

Enrollment limited to 15

Art and Cultural Identity

Anthropology 37 Prof. C. Solomon Kiefer

Fall 2007 Office: Mead Art Museum MW 2:00-3:20 Office Hrs MW 3:30-4:30 Fayerweather 117

REQUIRED TEXTS

To purchase – Available at Jeffery Amherst College Bookstore

(Also on reserve at Frost Library- see Reserve List below)

Bayoumi, Moustafa and Andrew Rubin. The Edward Said Reader, New York: Vintage

Books, 2000 (ISBN 0-375-70936-3)

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture, London and New York: Routledge, 2006

(1994) (ISBN 0-415-33639-2)

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.,

1999 (ISBN 13: 978-0-395-92720-5)

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis, New York: Pantheon Books, 2003 (ISBN 0-375-71457-X)

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2, New York: Pantheon Books, 2004

(ISBN 0-375-71466-9)

Course Packet of required articles - Pick up in Anthropology Office, 205 Morgan Hall

(See attached list of contents) (indicated as CP)

Articles available on line (JSTOR) (See attached list)

Supplemental References on reserve at Frost Library (See attached list)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Regular attendance, required readings, active participation in discussion (20%)

2. Take Home Exam (20%)

3. Short written paper (5 pp) related to group presentation (20%)

4. Major oral and written presentation (12-15pp) (40%) (Paper due Dec. 12)*

*Penalty for papers submitted after due date w/o permission of professor

COURSE OUTLINE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

W 9/5 Introduction, Overview

Questions of Cultural Identity

Cultural Identity – Then and Now – Defining Terms – Exile, Diaspora, Globalization, Cosmopolitanism

M 9/10 Assignment: Reflection on Cultural Identity – Interview a friend, fellow

student, or family member with multiple cultural ties, roots, or living

experiences. How does this person define his/her cultural identity? How has the person’s life been informed/ changed/ affected by his/her cultural identity?

Read: Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” in Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, 392-403 (CP); Edward Said, “Reflections on Exile,” in Edward Said, Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2000, 173-186 (CP)

W 9/12 Read: Jhumpa Lahiri, “My Hyphenated Identity,” Newsweek, Mar. 6,

2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11569225/site/newsweek/page/o/

Jhumpa Lahiri, “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Interpreter of

Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen’s,” and “The Third and Final Continent,” in

Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1999

Constructing Cultural Identity: Edward Said, Orientalism, and Cultural Imperialism; Napoleon; Artist Lalla Essaydi

M 9/17 Read: Edward Said, from Orientalism(1978) in The Edward Said Reader,

63-113; Linda Nochlin, “The Imaginary Orient,” in Vanessa R. Schwartz and Jeannene M. Przyblyski, The Nineteenth-Century Cultural Reader, New York and London: Routledge, 2004, 289-298 (CP)

W 9/19 Read: Edward Said, “Jane Austen and Empire,” from Culture and

Imperialism (1990) in The Edward Said Reader, 347-367

Cultural Property: Who Owns the Past? The Bamiyan Buddhas; Iraq

M 9/24 Read: Zainab Bahrani, “Iraq’s Cultural Heritage: Monuments, History, and Loss,” Art Journal, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Winter 2003), 10-17. (JSTOR)

Finnbarr Barry Flood, “Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum,” Art Bulletin, Vol. 84, No. 4 (December 2002), 641-659 (JSTOR)

The Elgin Marbles

W 9/26 Read: John Henry Merryman, “Introduction,” in John Henry Merryman, ed., Imperialism, Art and Restitution, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 1-14 (CP); Kate Fitz Gibbon, “The Elgin Marbles, A Summary,” in Kate Fitz Gibbon, ed., Who Owns the Past? Cultural Policy, Cultural Property, and the Law, New Brunswick, NJ and London: Rutgers University Press, 2005, 108-121 (CP)

Assignment of sides for debate on “The Return of the Elgin Marbles”

M 10/1 Read: John Henry Merryman, “Whither the Elgin Marbles?” Chapter 5 in

John Henry Merryman, ed., Imperialism, Art and Restitution, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 98-113 (CP)

W 10/3 DEBATE on the Elgin Marbles

M 10/8 No Class –Mid Semester Break

W 10/10 Field Trip - Global Feminisms Exhibition – Davis Museum and Culture Center, Wellesley College

Take home exam due

Art and Cultural Identity: Late 19th and Early 20th Century

M 10/15 Cézanne’s Provençal Identity

Read: Philip Conisbee, “Cézanne’s Provence,” in Conisbee, Philip and Denis Coutagne with contributions by Bruno Ely et al. Cézanne in

Provence, Exh. Cat., Washington, Paris, Aix-en-Provence: National Gallery of Art, Réunion des musées nationaux, Musée Granet, 2006,

1-25 (on reserve) xND553.C33A4 2006

W 10/17 Paul Gauguin and Primitivism

Read: Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist Modernism,” in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds., The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, New York: Harper Collins, 1992, 312-329 (CP)

M 10/22 Frida Khalo’s Mexican Identity

Read: Janice Helland, “Culture, Politics, and Identity in the Paintings of Frida Kahlo,” in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds., The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, New York: Harper Collins, 1992, 396-407 (CP)

W 10/24 Liminality, Hybridity, and the Location of Culture; The Impact of Globalization

Read: Homi Bhabha, from The Location of Culture, London and New York: Routledge, 2006 (1994), 1-56; Amor, Monica, et al., “Liminalities: Discussions on the Global and the Local,” Art Journal, Vol. 57, No.4 (Winter 1998) 28-49 (JSTOR)

M 10/29 GLOBAL/LOCAL : Art and Cultural Identity Today

Read: Jean Fisher and Gerardo Mosquera. “Introduction” in Gerardo

Mosquera and Jean Fisher, Over Here: International Perspectives on Art

and Culture, Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press, 2004, 2-9 (CP); Nikos Papastergiadis, “The Limits of Cultural Translation,” in Gerardo Mosquera and Jean Fisher. Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture, Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press, 2004, 330-347 (CP)

The Third Space: Cultural Identity Today –

W 10/31 Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Mona Hatoum, Hung Lui, Maria Magdalena

M 11/5 Campos Pons, Shirin Neshat, Daniel Kojo Schrade, Jaune Quick-To-

See Smith, Entang Wiharso and others

Read: Homi Bhabha, “Another Country,” in Fereshteh Daftari, Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking, exh. cat., New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2006, 30-35 (CP)

W 11/7 Artist Visit

M 11/12

W 11/14 Artist Visit

M 11/19 No Class Thanksgiving Recess

W 11/21 No Class Thanksgiving Recess

M 11/26 Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis, Persepolis 2

Read: Persepolis, Persepolis 2

W 11/28 Student presentation

M 12/3 Student presentation

W 12/5 Student presentation

M 12/10 Student presentation

W 12/12 Last Class – Conclusion

READING LIST AND SUPPLEMENTAL RESERVE

Articles available on line (JSTOR)

Amor, Monica, et al. “Liminalities: Discussions on the Global and the Local,” Art

Journal, Vol. 57, No.4 (Winter 1998) 28-49 (JSTOR)

Bahrani, Zainab. “Iraq’s Cultural Heritage: Monuments, History, and Loss,” Art Journal,

Vol. 62, No. 4 (Winter 2003), 10-17 (JSTOR)

Flood, Finbarr Barry. “Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the

Museum,” Art Bulletin, Vol. 84, No. 4 (December 2002), 641-659 (JSTOR)

Lahiri, Jhumpa. “My Hyphenated Identity,” Newsweek, Mar. 6, 2006

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11569225/site/newsweek/page/o/

Contents of Course Packet

Bhabha, Homi. “Another Country,” in Fereshteh Daftari, Without Boundary: Seventeen

Ways of Looking, exh. cat., New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2006, 30-35

Fisher, Jean and Gerardo Mosquera. “Introduction” in Gerardo Mosquera and Jean

Fisher. Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture, Cambridge,

MA and London: The MIT Press, 2004, 2-9

Gibbon, Kate Fitz. “The Elgin Marbles, A Summary,” in Kate Fitz Gibbon, ed. Who

Owns the Past? Cultural Policy, Cultural Property, and the Law, New

Brunswick, NJ and London: Rutgers University Press, 2005, 108-121

Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” in Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman,

eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, New York:

Columbia University Press, 1994, 392-403

Helland, Janice. “Culture, Politics, and Identity in the Paintings of Frida Kahlo,” in

Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds., The Expanding Discourse: Feminism

and Art History, New York: Harper Collins, 1992, 396-407

Helly, Denise. “Diaspora: History of an Idea,” in Haideh Moghissi, ed. Muslim

Diaspora: Gender, Culture and Identity, London and New York: Routledge,

2006, 3-22

Merryman, John Henry. “Introduction and Chapter 5, “Whither the Elgin Marbles?” in

John Henry Merryman, ed. Imperialism, Art and Restitution, Cambridge and

New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 1-14; 98-113 (K 3788.I47 2006)

Nochlin, Linda, “The Imaginary Orient,” in Vanessa R. Schwartz and Jeannene M.

Przyblyski, The Nineteenth-Century Cultural Reader, New York and London:

Routledge, 2004, 289-298

Papastergiadis, Nikos. “The Limits of Cultural Translation,” in Gerardo Mosquera and

Jean Fisher. Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture, Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press, 2004, 330-347

Said, Edward. “Reflections on Exile,” in Edward Said, Reflections on Exile and Other

Essays, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2000, 173-186

Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. “Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist

Modernism,” in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds., The Expanding

Discourse: Feminism and Art History, New York: Harper Collins, 1992, 312-329

On Reserve

Alcoff, Linda Martin and Eduardo Mendieta, eds. Identities: Race, Class, Gender, and

Nationality, Malden, MA and London,: Blacwell, 2003 HM753.I33 2003

Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Nina Maria. Cézanne and Provence: The Painter in His

Culture, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2003

ND553.C33 A88 2003

Bayoumi, Moustafa and Andrew Rubin. The Edward Said Reader, New York: Vintage

Books, 2000 PN51.E393 2000

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture, London and New York: Routledge, 2006

(1994) PN 761 H43 1994

Braziel, Jana Evans and Anita Mannur, eds. Theorizing Diaspora A Reader, Malden, MA

and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003 JV6032.T44 2003

Broude, Norma and Mary D. Garrard, eds., The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art

History, New York: Harper Collins, 1992 N72.F45 E96 1992

Conisbee, Philip and Denis Coutagne with contributions by Bruno Ely et al. Cézanne in

Provence, Exh. Cat., Washington, Paris, Aix-en-Provence: National Gallery of

Art, Réunion des musées nationaux, Musée Granet, 2006 xND553.C33A4 2006

Daftari, Fereshteh. Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking, exh. cat., New York:

Museum of Modern Art, 2006 SC Neilson N6497.D3

Gibbon, Kate Fitz, ed. Who Owns the Past? Cultural Policy, Cultural Property, and the

Law, New Brunswick, NJ and London: Rutgers University Press, 2005

UMASS AM221 W48 2005

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.,

1999 PS3562.A316 158 1999

Merryman, John Henry, ed. Imperialism, Art and Restitution, Cambridge and New

York: Cambridge University Press, 2006 K 3788.I47 2006

Merryman, John Henry. Thinking About the Elgin Marbles: Critical Essays on Cultural

Property, Art, and Law, The Hague, London, Boston: Kluwer Law International,

2000 K3701.M47 2000

Mosquera, Gerardo and Jean Fisher. Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and

Culture, Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press, 2004 N72.S6093 2004

Nochlin, Linda. “The Imaginary Orient,” in The Politics of Vision: Essays on

Nineteenth-Century Art and Society, New York: Harper & Row, 1989, 33-59

N72.S6N63 1989

Reilly, Maura and Linda Nochlin. Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary

Art, London and New York: Merrill, 2007 xN8354 G56 2007

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis, New York: Pantheon Books, 2003

PN6747.S245 P47 2007

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2, New York: Pantheon Books, 2004

PN6747.S245P4913 2004

Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993

PN 761 S28 1993

Said, Edward W. Orientalism, New York: Vintage Books, 1979 (1978)

D512.S24 2003

Said, Edward W. Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press, 2000 PN 98.P64 S35 2000

Schwartz, Venessa R. and Jeannene M. Przyblyski, The Nineteenth-Century Cultural

Reader, New York and London: Routledge, 2004, 289-298.

Williams, Patrick and Laura Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial

Theory: A Reader, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994

Hampshire JV51.C73 1994

Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford and New York:

Oxford University Press, 2003 UM DuBois JV51. Y67 2003