LAPI 824 - “Orientalism”: 19th century European eyes on the Middle East

The course will consider the “Orient” (the land and its peoples included in the Ottoman Empire in the Near East, North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, and the Arabian peninsula) as seen by 19th century European travelers, artists, poets, adventures, wayfarers, do-gooders, soldiers, and colonial officals; i.e., “outsiders” in cultures they observed, imagines, marveled at, or exploited–sometimes all of them simultaneously–in their art. The ever- increasing numbers of “Orientalist” words, images, and musical scores will provide the core material for discussion in the class. These artistic representations will be informed by background reading in 19th century Near Eastern and European history and religion and by the ideas of late 20th century critics, who have either condemned “Orientalist” art forms as imperial “Occidental” exploitation pure and simple, praised it as a form of enlightened investigation of cultures both largely new to European eyes or wondrously ancient in their imaginations, or as something of both. Thus, students will learn the history and culture of 19th century colonial expansion, the ways the “Orient” was seen by strangers to it, and the modern discourse surrounding these 19th century ways of seeing.

Prerequisites & Notes
LACR 102

Credits: 3 cr, 3 hrs