Modern Arab Culture and Politics: Art and Photography

Catalog description

In this course, we shall survey the political underpinnings of Arab art and photography in the 20th and 21st centuries, and the socio-political conditions that shaped cultural production in the region. Whether it is under Baathist Syria and Iraq or under Egypt’s Arabism championed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, painting and sculpture in addition to film and performance have been employed by various governments as a tool of soft power to propagate their policies to the public not only in their respective states but throughout the region and beyond. Despite this widespread government patronage of the arts, many artists have chosen to challenge their authorities through subversive movements and practices, which we will address at different moments in the semester. This course, through its focus on creative practices and strategic use of the arts, will attempt to shed light on an often-neglected dimension of the modern history of the Arab World.