080083 PS Fallstudie II/III: Gender and Other Identities in the History of Iranian Photography (nst./au.K.) (2014W)

The art of photography has flourished in Iran shortly after its announcement in France in 1839. Today it is one of Iran?s most innovative art forms. In this seminar, we focus the constructions of gender in relation to identity, the nation, and globalism in the photography of Iranian photographers from the nineteenth- through twenty-first centuries to unpack their possible messages and ramifications. This course critically examines the roles of photography in Iran, from its inception during the nineteenth century until the present. We consider how photographs have been constructed, and how they manipulate gendered identities that comprise modern state narratives, and later, comprise competing narratives of contemporary Iran and the Iranian diaspora. The material covers photographs of different genres, such as landscape, portraiture, ethnography, and documentary, and we question these genres, as we investigate their porous, discursive spaces and the gendered and political agendas that they disseminate. Perspectives that frame our discussions are gender theory, Orientalism, postcolonialism, feminism, post-structuralism, and diaspora studies. Readings include standard historiographies of photography, as well as major theoretical texts, such as those by Lorber and Butler.