Universität Wien

080109 UE Course (Summer course): The Vienna World's Fair 1873 from a postcolonial perspective (2023S)

Continuous assessment of course work


Sommerkurse sind ein Zusatzangebot im Rahmen der Aktion 53.000 zur Erhöhung der Studienaktivität. Es handelt sich um reguläre Lehrveranstaltungen. Sie finden in der vorlesungsfreien Zeit im Sommer statt. Die Anmeldephase beginnt am 24.05.2023 und endet am 31.05.2023, jeweils 10:00 Uhr.

GESONDERTE ANMELDEPHASE!

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

Language: German

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

After an introductory session (July 3, 2023, 10:00 - 11:30) with assignment and preparation details (research and presentation), the exercise will take place as a block course from July 12 to July 14, each full day (10:00 - 18:00).

  • Monday 03.07. 10:00 - 11:30 Seminarraum 3 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-25 (Kickoff Class)
  • Wednesday 12.07. 10:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum 3 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-25
  • Thursday 13.07. 10:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum 3 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-25
  • Friday 14.07. 10:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum 3 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-25

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

150 years ago, on the first of May 1873, the Vienna World's Fair was opened on the grounds of the Vienna Prater. It was the first exhibition of this magnitude in the German-speaking world and had the goal to „present the cultural life of the present and the overall field of national economy and to promote its further progress“, as announced in a publication published for the occasion (Seis, Führer durch die Weltausstellung, 1873, 4).
With the construction of a colossal "Rotunda", with over 1000 exhibitors in around 200 different exhibition pavilions and buildings and a multitude of displayed objects, the ambition was to create a total work of art that would gather the whole world in Vienna as a microcosm. Alongside technical innovations of the industrial age, the fine arts, the art industry and fashion played an essential role in the competition for national representation.
However, the order took place from a eurocentric perspective and according to "western" criteria. The positioning of Vienna as a modern metropolis and the presentation of the "Western industrial nations" went hand in hand with an ideological demarcation from "the otherness" of the so-called "peripheries".
To what extent has the format of the World's Fair contributed to establishing and strengthening an understanding of "West and Rest," of "Orient and Occident"? What narratives of national and ethnic identities were constructed within the framework of the World's Fair? How can the construction of (European) identity and (non-European) alterity be traced in objects of the world exhibition, in their classification and description? To what extent is our discipline of art history also shaped by colonialist patterns of order, forms of representation, and judgments?
The aim of this course is to jointly discuss and develop answers to these questions. To this end, artworks and objects in the context of the 1873 World's Fair, as well as photographs, illustrations, and descriptive texts, will be analyzed exemplarily for phenomena and concepts described by Postcolonial Studies. In the form of presentations, students will present case studies of specific objects and historical documents from the 1873 World's Fair. In addition, we will read and discuss various texts in the field of Postcolonial Studies. The course serves to deepen the knowledge gained in the previous studies.

Assessment and permitted materials

Active participation will be in the form of written contributions: Research Task (1/4), Handout (1/4) and Oral Contributions: presentation (1/4), discussion moderation or participation (1/4) will be assessed.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

- Mandatory attendance. In case of absence due to illness or exceptional family situation, written proof must be submitted.
- For a positive completion of the course, all partial assignments (research task, handout, presentation, moderation or participation in the discussion) must be completed.

Evaluation standard:
- Research task 25%
- Handout 25%
- Short presentation 25%
- Discussion moderation or participation 25%

Grading scale:
- 1 (very good) 100-90 points; 2 (good) 89-81 points; 3 (satisfactory) 80-71 points; 4 (sufficient) 70-61 points; 5 (insufficient) 60-0 points.

Examination topics

The subject matter of the examination is the content of the course.

Reading list

Sources
Digitized documents on the World's Fair (e.g. situation plans, catalogs, World's Fair newspaper, photographs) from the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus: https://www.digital.wienbibliothek.at/nav/classification/2665806

Digitized documents in the online exhibition:Women at Work. 150 Jahre Frauenpavillon der Wiener Weltausstellung: https://forschung.tmw.at/exhibition/view/33987

Secondary literature:

Appadurai 1986
Arjun Appadurai, The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, Cambridge 1986.

Biro / Étienne 2022
Yaëlle Biro / Noémie Étienne, Rhapsodic Objects. Art, Agency, and Materiality (1700-2000), Berlin 2022.

Camilleri 2005
Carla Camilleri / Technisches Museum Wien (Hg.), Welt ausstellen: Schauplatz Wien 1873, Ausst.-Kat. Technisches Museum Wien, 28.10.2004 – 27.02.2005, Wien 2005.

Clifford 1993
James Clifford, “On Collecting Art and Culture”, in: Simon During (Hg.), The Cultural Studies Reader, London 1993, 57-76.

Hall 2018 / 1996
Stuart Hall, “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power” in: Essential Writings: Identity and Diaspora, Vol. 2, Durham 2018, 141-184.

Gaugele / Titton 2019
Elke Gaugele / Monica Titton (Hg.), Fashion and Postcolonial Critique, London 2019.

Jones 2016
Caroline Jones, The Global Work of Art: World´s Fair, Biennials, and the Aesthetics of Experience, Chicago 2016.

Karentzos 2012
Alexandra Karentzos, „Postkoloniale Kunstgeschichte. Revisionen von Musealisierungen, Kanonisierungen, Repräsentationen“, in: Julia Reuter / Alexandra Karentzos (Hg.), Schlüsselwerke der Postcolonial Studies, Wiesbaden 2012, 249-266.

Krasny 2008
Krasny, Elke. „Unsere Welt in den Augen der Welt. Identität und Authentizität als Frage der Gestaltung im Medium Weltausstellung“, in: Matthias Götz (Hg.), Villa Paragone. Thesen zum Ausstellen, Basel 2008.

Krasny 2010
Elke Krasny, „Binnenexotismus und Binnenkolonialismus. Das Bauernhaus mit seiner Einrichtung und seinem Geräthe auf der Wiener Weltausstellung 1873.“, in: Anita Aigner (Hg.), Vernakuläre Moderne. Grenzüberschreitungen in der Architektur um 1900, Bielefeld 2010, 37-56.

Kravagna 2016
Christian Kravagna, „Postcolonial Studies“, in: Elke Gaugele / Jens Kastner (Hg.), Critical Studies. Kultur- und Sozialtheorie im Kunstfeld, Wien 2016, 65-83.

Kos / Gleis 2014
Wolfgang Kos / Ralph Gleis (Hg.), Experiment Metropole: 1873: Wien und die Weltausstellung; Ausst.-kat. Wien-Museum Karlsplatz, 15.05 – 28.09.2014, Wien 2014.

MAK Wien 2023
Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien, Ausstellung: Wiener Weltausstellung 1873 Revisited. Ägypten und Japan als Europas „Orient“, https://www.mak.at/weltausstellung

Modest 2020
Wayne Modest, „Museums are Investments in Critical Discomfort“, in: Margareta von Oswald / Jonas Tinius (Hg.), Across Anthropology. Troubling Colonial Legacies, Museums, and the Curatorial, Leuven 2020, 65-74.

Niemand 2021
Franziska Niemand, „Orientalische und orientalisierende Interieurs auf der Wiener Weltausstellung 1873 im Spiegel der Text- und Bildquellen“, in: Maximilian Hartmuth / Julia Rüdiger (Hg.), Gezimmertes Morgenland: Orientalische und orientalisierende Holzinterieurs in Mitteleuropa im späten 19. Jahrhundert. Phänomenalität, Materialität, Historizität, Wien 2021, 79-96.

Nochlin 1987
Linda Nochlin, „The Imaginary Orient“, in: Art in America 73, 1983 (5), 119-131 u. 186-191.

Offenthaler 2013
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften / Eva Offenthaler,
Wiener Weltausstellung 1873 Revisited. Eine virtuelle Ausstellung zum 140-Jahr-Jubiläum, 2013: http://www.wiener-weltausstellung.at/startseite.html

Putschert 2012
Patricia Purtschert, „Postkoloniale Philosophie. Die westliche Denkgeschichte gegen den Strich lesen“, in: Julia Reuter / Alexandra Karentzos (Hg.), Schlüsselwerke der Postcolonial Studies, Wiesbaden 2012, 343-354.

Roschitz 1989
Karlheinz Roschitz, Wiener Weltausstellung 1873, Wien 1989.

Said 2001 / 1987
Edward W. Said, Orientalism. Western Conceptions of the Orient, London 2001.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 22.06.2023 13:07