Universität Wien

080020 VO Heritage and Hybridity (2023S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 8 - Kunstgeschichte und Europäische Ethnologie
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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Änderung Vorlesungsbeginn/-ende (Update am 07.03.2023): ab 14.03.2023 - 10:15-11:45 Uhr.

  • Tuesday 07.03. 10:00 - 11:30 Digital
  • Tuesday 14.03. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 21.03. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 28.03. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 18.04. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 25.04. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 02.05. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 09.05. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 16.05. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 23.05. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 06.06. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 13.06. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital
  • Tuesday 20.06. 10:15 - 11:45 Digital

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This lecture takes as a premise that all heritage is hybrid. There is no simplicity nor purity in the material culture and landmarks constructed over time as "heritage". The methods, which will be employed in this lecture will include, among others, post-colonial and gender studies. We will trace back the ways in which power structures, as well as human and non-human agencies impact the production, preservation, and hybridization of heritage. From this perspective, we will analyze paintings, engravings, architecture and spaces, in order to examine their origins and trajectories over time.

The first part of the lecture will focus on early modern times, considering, for instance, objects, such as African Ivory salt cellars or featherworks. Also, early collections, such as the one established at the Ambras Castle, or buildings such as the castle of Schönbrunn in Vienna as places of hybridity will be discussed. How were European identities imagined and portrayed in relation to the rest of the world, including, for instance, Ottoman identities? How did Asian objects and techniques become paradigmatic for French culture? Moreover, w e will consider 19th century displays and the discipline of anthropology in a broader history of representation and exhibition. Through the participation of guest speakers, coming from different fields, including museums and digital humanities, the second part of the lecture will problematize the contemporary histories of conservation, provenance, and restitution. Please note that some sensitive material will be discussed during this lecture , in particular connected to the history of slavery, colonization, and the afterlife of human remains.

Preliminary Schedule:

Tuesday March 7: Introduction

Tuesday March 14: Kunstkammern and Collections

Tuesday March 21: Grand tour, Masquerade, and Performances

Tuesday March 28: Looking East: Consumption and Identity

Tuesday April 4: no class, Spring Break

Tuesday April 11: no class, Spring Break

Tuesday April 18: Lotte Arndt (Berlin): Beyond Conservation? Artistic Practices and the Museum Threshold

Tuesday April 25: Spaces and Textiles

Tuesday May 2: Slavery and Heritage

Tuesday May 9: Felicity Bodenstein (Paris): Digital Benin.Moving from a database to a shared space for storytelling with collections

Tuesday May 16: Objects, mannequins, and museums: Anthropology around 1900

Tuesday May 23: Rosanna Raymond (Auckland): Museology and the Mused

Tuesday May 30: no class

Tuesday June 6: Yaelle Biro (Paris): Collecting Practices, pedigree, and provenances of African works of art

Tuesday June 13: Mabafokeng Hoeane (Pretoria): Alternate conservation practices

Tuesday June 20: Decolonizing Heritage: Projects, Challenges, Methods

Tuesday June 27: Exam

Assessment and permitted materials

Assessment and permitted materials

Written multiple-choice exam or open question exam

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

For passing the exam, at least 50% of the total points must be achieved.

Examination topics

Themes and theories presented and discussed during all the lectures, as well as parts of the assigned readings. Please also consider developping the following tools:

- historical knowledge
- critical knowledge
- theory and methodology
- creativity

Reading list

Wendy Bellion and Smentek Kristel, eds., Material Cultures of the Global Eighteenth Century: Art, Mobility, and Change, London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2023.

Yaëlle Biro and Noémie Etienne (eds.), Rhapsodic Objects. Art, Agency, and Materiality (1700-2000), Berlin, De Gruyter, 2022.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110757668/html

Edward S. Cooke, Jr., Global Objects. Toward a Connected Art History, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2022.

Edwards, Elizabeth. Sensible Objects: Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture. English ed. Wenner-Gren International Symposium Series. Oxford: Berg, 2006.

Stuart Hall, “Un-settling ‘the Heritage’, Re-imagining the Post-nation Whose Heritage?” Third Text 13, no. 49 (December 1, 1999,: 3–13.

John Huthnyk, “Hybridity,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28, no. 1, January 2005.

Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Amelia Peck and Amy Elizabeth Bogansky, Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2013.

Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Decolonizing Methodologies. Research and Indigenous Peoples, London and New York/Dunedin, Zed Books, University of Otago Press, 1999.

NicholasThomas, Entangled Objects: Exchange, Material Culture, and Colonialism in the Pacific. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: We 06.09.2023 13:27