The Visual Culture of US Empire

AMER30522 The Visual Culture of US Empire 20 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 3 Molly Geidel Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 From Singer sewing machine trading cards to Christian micro-lending websites and televisual depictions of torture, the United States has consolidated its formal and informal empire by visually projecting its military and economic power.  In this class we will study these visual tools of empire, tracking the rise of the mass production of still and moving images alongside changes in racial, gender, and sexual regimes that bolstered and justified U.S. imperial expansion. We will consider how photojournalism, Hollywood cinema, war propaganda, and recent social media ventures have helped Americans imagine the rest of the world as lacking maturity and guidance, while reinforcing a self-image of innocence and benevolence. We will track how US visual culture attempts to incite desires for American consumer goods (and even “the American dream”) abroad, while also attending to counter-visual strategies of resistance and anti-imperialist solidarity. From Singer sewing machine trading cards to Christian micro-lending websites and televisual depictions of torture, the United States has consolidated its formal and informal empire by visually projecting its military and economic power.  In this class we will study these visual tools of empire, tracking the rise of the mass production of still and moving images alongside changes in racial, gender, and sexual regimes that bolstered and justified U.S. imperial expansion. We will consider how photojournalism, Hollywood cinema, official (hot and cold) war propaganda, and recent social media ventures have helped Americans imagine the rest of the world as lacking maturity and guidance, while reinforcing a self-image of innocence and benevolence. We will track how US visual culture attempts to incite desires for American consumer goods (and even “the American dream”) abroad, while also attending to counter-visual strategies of resistance and anti-imperialist solidarity.Throughout the course we will analyze images closely in the context of their production and circulation, investigating the institutions that commissioned them and the audiences for whom they were intended. We will also compare analytical and historiographic approaches to visual culture, considering the variety of methods scholars use for understanding how images shaped their historical context. At the end of the course, students will create and present a group project, using the visual technology of their choice to explain, critique, or mock a moment in the history of American empire.Primary sources for the course may include: Singer sewing machine trading cards; photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston and Jesse Tarbox Beals; Hawaiian hula dancer cabinet cards and portraits; The Sheik (dir. Melford, 1921), White Zombie (dir. Halperin, 1932); Steichen, Family of Man exhibition (1955); South Pacific (dir. Rodgers, 1958); Gordon Parkss’ Rio de Janeiro photographs; Hearts and Minds (dir. Davis, 1974); Susan Meiselas, Nicaragua (1981); Raiders of the Lost Ark (dir. Spielberg, 1981); Wafaa Bilal, Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life, and Resistance Under the Gun (2013); Ciudad Juárez Femicides solidarity art, and Kiva.org. Secondary sources for this course may include readings by Mirzoeff, Azoulay, Sontag, Butler, Scott, Damosh, Wexler, Imada, Hansen, Renda, Dorfman, Nilsen, Klein, Rogin, and Chamayou. <ol> <li> To trace how changes in visual technology, production, distribution, reception, style, and genre were tied to structural developments of US empire in the arenas of policy, economics, and militarization.</li> <li> To analyze visual cultural texts using a variety of theoretical tools and historical contexts.  </li> <li> To evaluate analytical methods for studying visual texts in their historical context.</li> <li> To encourage students to construct sustained and coherent arguments of a standard appropriate to final year degree work.</li> </ol> By the end of this course students will be able to: <ol> <li> Explain the major developments in US expansion in the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries</li> <li> Connect those developments to changes in image technology, production, distribution, reception, style, and genre</li> <li> Summarize and analyze scholarly secondary sources, identifying central arguments and evaluating methods and conclusions.</li> <li> Analyze primary texts in historical context, making original arguments that build on and refer to scholarly conversations.</li> <li> Present and explain a creative visual project in groups.</li> </ol> Analytical skills Students will learn critical skills Group/team working Students will practice collaborative work Innovation/creativity Students will learn creative thinking skills Oral communication Students will improve their oral communication Written communication Students will improve their written communication 0 Other 100% <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;width:134pt" width="178"> <tbody> <tr height="96" style="height:72.0pt"> <td class="xl68" height="96" style="height:72.0pt;width:67pt" width="89"> Essay</td> <td class="xl67" style="border-left:none;width:67pt" width="89"> 60%</td> </tr> </tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;width:134pt" width="178"> <tbody> <tr height="96" style="height:72.0pt"> <td class="xl67" height="96" style="height:72.0pt;width:67pt" width="89"> film project (video or screenplay)</td> <td class="xl67" style="border-left:none;width:67pt" width="89"> 40%</td> </tr> </tbody></table>    Feedback methods <ul> <li> Oral feedback on video project</li> <li> Written feedback on essay</li> <li> Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment)</li> </ul>    N  Set Reading:Wafaa Bilal, Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life, and Resistance Under the GunGregoire Chamayou, Drone Theory Recommended Preliminary Reading:Ariella Azoulay, The Civil Contract of PhotographyMona Domosh, American Commodities in an Age of EmpireBrian Hochman, Savage Preservation: The Ethnographic Origins of Modern Media Technology Susan Meiselas, Susan Meiselas: NicaraguaNicholas Mirzoeff, The Right to Look: A Counterhistory of VisualitySusan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of OthersLaura Wexler, Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of US Imperialism Lectures 11 Seminars 22 0 167