142206 UE Visual popular culture (2022S)

The vibrant and diverse visual popular culture of India has increasingly become the subject of innovative, transdisciplinary and critical investigations in cultural studies in recent years. The consideration of the diversity and development of popular image culture since the introduction of mass reproduction techniques in the 19th century provides an insight into the changing viewing habits and values in the late colonial period as well as the phase of postcolonial renewal.
The aim of the course is to trace the most important phases of development on the basis of concrete image samples and to analyse and interpret the visual language within the framework of its socio-historical conditions. While Western influences played an important role, especially in the initial phase, an independent visual culture soon emerged, which used specific forms of marketing and appealed to a broad audience. The analysis of the images shows an idiosyncratic fusion of traditional elements and modern ideas in different historical contexts. For example, it deals with the role of religious motifs in the so-called "calendar art" or other forms of advertising, the creation of national symbols in the freedom movement or the use of traditional image patterns in political propaganda.
Numerous different approaches were used in the interpretation of the images, including art-historical, cultural anthropological, socio-historical or media-theoretical. An important part of the work will be a critical examination of the different methods, concepts and theories.

Topics
• Popular culture and art in South Asia
• Printing techniques and traditional popular art in the 19th century
• Photography
• Raja Ravi Varma
• Gender issues
• Religion and politics
• Religious iconography
• Nationalism
• Advertisement
• Film posters